The Flint Street Nativity

An evening of much mirth and how great to have a sell-out first night. This is such a clever and funny play, Tim Firth brings out the ‘people-watching’ to a high and shows that he understands youth as well as adults in a very humorous mix, and so too did the cast under Director Yvonne Howard, not a trick or pause missed, a good laugh.
 Of course every girl wants to play Mary, and Joanna Ryan was no exception and just loved her spats with Selina White as Angel Gabriel (who really wanted Mary) and her relationship with Joseph (Neville Rowe). And Selina’s masterly domination of her fellows, the Angel from Annabelle Abendroth and the Wise Man from Janet Hignett and this threesome really brought home how cruel children can be in class! This play is all about relationships and they all worked so well. As Narrator, Luke Abendroth made toes curl in sympathy for his worry about lines and lack of confidence. Martin Howard managed the discomfort of the Ass Head with style. Ruth Elliott had her major problems as the other Wise Man, loved the speech and tongue-twisters in her struggle to cope. Kat Tindall as the Shepherd joined the scene as did an energetic Star from Matt Scantlebury, and did his ‘uncle’ really work at NASA?! Richard Delahaye was very grumpy and unhappy as the Innkeeper, and as Herod Neil Robertson had his moment of glory. How the plots changed and amused and also were thought provoking, especially in the latter stage when we met the parents and understood exactly why these ‘children’ were as they were, behaved and reacted as they did, and had the inter-relationships within the group that were shown. This big cast play worked so well as all the characters rose to the heights of relationships, a difficult piece to play for adults to return to primary school and exploit the situations (and get over the many laughs in rehearsal). I felt that Tim Firth must have been influenced by a dream of Joyce Grenfell in the writing (think ‘George’) as I could hear her in narration!
As the programme stated, we shall never hear those carols and words in quite the same way again, and thank you to Brenda Binns for the accompaniment. Liked the set, definitely what is needed and very primary school. And costumes were highly suitable for the piece. Nothing missed to enhance the evening which was much enjoyed by all, and showed the ‘comedy side’ of the society to balance the serious play at the beginning of your special year. Congratulations on yet another high standard production. 

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