South Pacific

Many thanks to Pleasure Folk AMS for inviting me along to see their production of South Pacific at Ormskirk Civic Hall on Thursday 27th April 2023. This was a special treat for me as NODA's very own Jim Briscoe featured in this piece and I was honoured to be invited to review. I personally love it when old school classic musicals are brought back to life and, I am quite ashamed to say, I have never seen this piece on stage or silver screen, so although knowing some of the great musical numbers this show contains, I didn’t quite know what to expect, and I must firstly say I was thoroughly entertained and had a wonderful evening of entertainment.

The musical, written by Rodgers & Hammerstein and first performed on Broadway in 1949, is based on some of the stories in book Tales of the South Pacific and tells of 2 love stories within WW2. The main story an emotive tale of an American nurse, Nellie Forbush, & an expatriate French plantation owner on the island, Emile De Becque, who fall in love at first sight and have a turbulent romance as Emile’s past is resolved, which is then suspended due to Emile’s disappearance when he commits to helping the American forces on a nearby island. The sub-plot is based around a young lieutenant, Joseph Cable, and an island native girl, Liat, who again fall in love at first sight and have turbulence through sickness & cultural differences & the same suspension due to efforts in the war. We have one happy and one very sad ending within these. The show also has two side plots, one light-hearted around happenings on the island and the other centred around the war efforts, both of which tie the piece together.

Gemma Briscoe took on the huge undertaking of translating this story to the stage and did very well in doing so. There were some wonderful characterisations brought to the stage. The staging was used creatively, utilising different sections of the stage, keeping the piece interesting throughout. There was good pace and a nice ebb and flow of energy. I do feel the piece felt a little inconsistent in terms of stylisation. For such a strong and intense storyline, I feel like there was a little too much action which broke the fourth wall and therefore lost some of the catharsis of emotion. I did like this technique being utilised for some of the light-hearted subplot and the performance moments of the narrative, but I felt for the emotive parts of the story it would have been more impactful if all the action was played with the fourth wall drawn across.

Choreography, by Liz Wainwright, produced a similar sentiment to me. I remember a tutor on my training course telling me that a number within a musical is comparable to a soliloquy in Shakespeare, I somewhat agree with her statement, and there is a time and a place for it to be something else, but I felt in this piece a more naturalistic feel to the choreography which felt intertwined into the dialogue may have been more effective than some over the big chorus number feel to some of the numbers. This being said, the choreography was of a suitable level of complexity for the cast, which was well drilled and at times technical for when more versed members of the cast were featured.

Musical Direction was undertaken by Nancy Wells who did a fantastic job recreating this iconic score with finesse. To have numbers which hold so much nostalgia such as Happy Talk, Get That Man Right Out of my Hair & Some Enchanted Evening, to come out sounding equal to the recordings is no mean feat. No number stood out more than another and to create such a rich orchestration with 2 keys, a drums and a flute is an achievement in itself.

The design elements were particularly effective. The set was mainly depicted by varying backdrops which brought about different locations within the setting. The lighting was integrated well into this design, there were moments where carefully selected lighting dipped and reflected differing saturation on the backdrops to look as though the sun was setting and so intensifying the intimacy of the romantic moments. There were 2 spaces created on the apron stage left and stage right, which produced specific locations for scenes in the military office and for the love scenes of Liat and Cable. There were use of trucks shifted in also which help contextualise addition location, such as on Emile’s plantation. Costumes were of a high standard and appeared to fit the contextualisation and characters.

Now to the cast. Firstly, I feel I need to call out the diverse ages which were represented within the cast, from primary school ages through to those past retirement and everything in between. It is so humbling to see mixed communities being fused together through the power of theatre. As a general note, including my comment on the chorus, there was a great energy from the cast with a great rapport between them. I was particularly impressed to see such a high number in the male ensemble.

The lead couple were played by Beth McClelland as Nellie and Mark Charnock as Emile. Both were solid performances throughout and there was a brilliant rapport between them. I was blown away by Beth’s technical dance ability, providing clean lines and effortless articulation, she sang wonderfully too bringing the humble characterisation she created into the song. Mark was just a treat to watch on the stage, bringing a charming charismatic character to the stage. His vocal ability was showcased to the highest of extents, and the strength and resonance of his lower range was incredible.

The subplot romance was played by Jamie Mather as Cable and Eve McBride as Liat. Jamie gave a good performance throughout although I feel his nerves and confidence may have got the better of him. There were moments where he was truly living in the moment, and these were great, but other parts felt as though he was trying to act rather than naturally react, and with this, his acting looked choreographed and so broke the osmotic connection for me. Eve, although a relatively small part, performed nicely and executed well.

Bloody Mary was played by June Beswick who had a great presence and energy throughout and lifted out spirits throughout the performance. Similarly, Luther Bills was played by Jim Briscoe who brought humour and light relief to the serious undertones of the show.

The military people were played by Steve Coghlan as Captain Bracket, Rob Bailey as Cmdr. Harbison. They brought intensity to their performances. Steve’s performance had such great gravitas and authority, I was enamoured by his accent which sounded like an old school American Radio show presenter.

Emille’s 2 young children, Ngana & Jerome were played by Eden Wainwright & Megan Lawson and gave a nice energy to their performances. I adored the laughter which they opened the show with, instantaneously lifting the audience’s spirits. The fact most of their dialogue was in French was super impressive.

Many thanks again for inviting me along to see this fabulous production and I hope to be invited to see more of your shows.

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