The Addams Family

In the kooky, upside-down world of the Addams Family, to be sad is to be happy, to feel pain is to feel joy, and death and suffering are the stuff of their dreams. They have lived by their unique values for hundreds of years and Gomez and Morticia, the patriarch and matriarch of the clan, would be only too happy to continue living that way. Their dark, macabre, beloved daughter Wednesday, however, is now eighteen and ready for a life of her own. She has fallen in love with Lucas Beineke, a sweet, smart boy from a normal, respectable Ohio family — the most un-Addams sounding person one could be! And to make matters worse, she has invited the Beinekes to their home for dinner. In one fateful night, secrets are disclosed, relationships are tested, and the Addams family must face up to the one horrible thing they’ve managed to avoid for generations: change.

The opening scene of KODS production captured the scenario well, with the Addams family  in the appropriate picture freeze and the entrance of all their ancestors in effective ghostly costume and make-up. ‘When You’re An Addams’ was a great opening full company number.

‘Gomez Addams’ (Reece Jones) and ‘Morticia Addams’ (Zoe Darks) worked well together; he loves her greatly and could never tell her lies but was under pressure when sworn to secrecy by daughter ‘Wednesday’ in her quest to be engaged to ‘Lucas Beineke’,  ‘Morticia’ dark, poised and attractive knew how to handle him. Rees added some great expressive touches and both sang well throughout. I liked ‘Wednesday’s Growing Up’ sung by ‘Gomez’ and ‘Secrets’ sung expressively by ‘Morticia’.

Daughter ‘Wednesday’ (Olivia Darks) had great impact and I liked her sassy characterisation and sung ‘Pulled’ clearly and well. She pleaded with ‘Gomez’ for one normal night when Lucas’ family came to dinner and not to play their traditional family ‘Game’! But the emerging star for me was ‘Pugsley Addams’ (a part shared by Harrison Bianco and Christopher Kemp) and played by Harrison on the night I attended. Loved his natural acting, he sang and spoke well and I liked his scene with ‘Grandma’, also played expressively by Claire Rutland.

‘Uncle Fester’ played by Josh Dibble brought humour and a great characterisation to the role. In the opportunity to make some up to date news references, he included a couple that were somewhat  ‘near the knuckle’.  ‘Lurch’ played by John Aubrey handled the hidden stilt walking with great poise, merely grunting in communication throughout, until we discovered a very pleasing voice towards the end.

‘Lucas’ was well played by Ben Williams and so too were mum ‘Alice’ (Joanna Tompkins) and dad ‘Mal’ (Matthew Tweedale). Despite ‘Wednesday’s plea for a normal night, ‘The Game’ had to be played and ‘Alice’s resulting transformation was impressive.

In Act 2 we get to feel the upset that ‘Morticia’ has towards ‘Gomez’ because he didn’t tell her everything and sings ‘Just Around The Corner’ with poise. ‘Fester’ was very amusing with ‘The Moon and Me’ and I loved ‘Gomez’s number ‘Happy Sad’ with ‘Wednesday’- very sensitively sung.

The set was simple and effective with projections to distinguish some of the different scenes. Sometimes there were silent pauses between scenes and although they had been changed smoothly and quickly I felt a few bars of music would have filled the gaps. Otherwise the orchestra provided great support throughout. The full house enjoyed the performance which was well deserved and I was particularly pleased to see it included a significant number of young families. Thank you for the usual warm welcome and I look forward to the next production later this year.

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