The Flint Street Nativity

I have to admit that I have never seen this play before although I had heard some bits about it, however I am so pleased Maltby MTG decided to perform this as a second production as it was hilarious.

As the title suggests this is a play about a Nativity performance by the Flint Street Primary School on the Welsh – Cheshire borders.

The whole production was narrated throughout with the performers on stage acting out their various characters onstage.

The narrator, Tim was played superbly by Josh Matkin, who as any 8-year-old boy will know is a very scary thing to do, especially when he knows his mum and possibly his dad will be in the audience, however when his mum does arrive she is not with Tim’s dad but another suiter which of course causes Tim much more embarrassment.

As with all school plays this one carries quite a lot of envy between the performers, especially the young girls, two of which want to be Mary, which leads to various bits of childish pranks to ensure the other one is unable to perform to her full ability. The child who had been given the role of Mary was  Jenny played by Rachel Smith, who was very sweet and everything you would expect of the Virgin Mary, on the other hand Ashley, who had been tasked to play Gabriel and who really wanted to play Mary could not be called sweet, Karen Mills was excellent and portrayed this little child beautifully.

One particular scene which had the audience all laughing out loud was when one of the girls said she (Wendy Barrows) knew how a baby was born and proceeded to relate to her other classmates how the mother stands and the baby just plops out followed by the “playcentre”, all the time she Moos while this happens.

A conversation followed about Mary and Joseph, who we are told is a car painter “carpenter,” again another top-class line which the audience loved.

Everyone in this piece had really thrown themselves into their respective roles which were all portrayed effortlessly.

Richard Willshaw was able to get everything out of this play and also out of his actors too, one touch which I really enjoyed and it worked was when any of the characters was feeling upset they would leave the stage, enter the auditorium via the pass door and deliver their lines. This was true of Sharon, who was an angel, Lizzie Murphy was excellent in this scene as she delivered her lines through tears as only a very upset child could do.

Others taking part were Innkeeper (Bradley) – Harrison Turner, Wise Gold (Jess)  -Joanne Farthing, Shepherd (Zoe) – Wendy Barrows, Star of Bethlehem (Marcus) – Nigel Brewitt, Herod/Joseph (Ryan) – Joseph Handley, Wise Frankincense (Adrian) – Richard Wilshaw and Ass (Andrew) Josh Spurr.

This is only a relatively short piece, however it is one which will remain with me for a very long time due to the excellent production and performances.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.