Sister Act

Once again Darlington excelled in all departments in this very popular show. The society was privileged to host the NODA National President, John Barnes, on the second night (23rd October) who was accompanied by Judith, his good lady, the Regional Councillor, Gordon Richardson, and the Regional Rep Peter Parlour.  The President was delighted with the performance and met the cast on stage at the end. The show was extremely well cast, with several excellent performances. The Society had the unusual casting of two Doloris Van Carters.  The Doloris we saw was Rhiannon Walker, and what a great performance she gave.  I have been given to understand that Claire Willmer also gave a great performance.  Mother Superior was superbly played by Samantha Morrison, battling with her conscience that Doloris was going against the traditions of the Convent.  Doloris was only there in hiding from her boyfriend Curtis, very well played by Julian Cound, who Doloris had witnessed shooting one of his gang. The police station was where she went and “Sweaty Eddie”, the officer in charge, very well played by Michael Hirst, decided to put her in the Convent for her own safety.

This is where the Mother Superior’s problems began.  After giving her the regulations on what a nun should do, Doloris soon found she could help with the singing, took over the choir, and began to jazz up the music.  We had some excellent performances from the singing Nuns in particular from  Lynne  Kerr, who played Sister Mary Lazarus, and Lisa Forster who played Sister Mary Patrick very powerfully. Beth Stobbart played the postulant Mary Robert very well indeed.

All the Nuns were really superb with really powerful singing throughout.  Trying to keep the Mother Superior happy was the Monsignor O’Hara, really well played by Warnock Kerr.  When the Police took Deloris away again, the Monsignor realised that the Convent was threatened with closure. Deloris then came back to help the choir with their singing.  Curtis’ gang were very well played indeed, and in particular Ben Connor who played Joey, whose dancing was very good, along with his singing. His comrades were Andrew Hamilton who played T J, Leighton Taylor who played Pablo all well played. It is very difficult to find any flaw in this production very great credit must go to Joanne Hand for directing  and choreographing this well-known show. The singing was of the very high standard we have now come to expect from Darlington, credit for this must go to the Musical Director, Michael Trotter, whose orchestra with some lovely colours was ideal.  it isn’t often you see the Pope directing a show, but at the finale we had just that. What another fantastic production Darlington have given their Patrons.?

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