The Sound of Music

From the very first scene and notes of music (controlled admirably by Meg Childs) we met “Maria” as a young postulant who loved singing, but without having too much experience of the outside world.  It is a daunting task to take on this role in a show where the audience knows the storyline so well, and understandably makes comparisons with the lavish sets in the film version.  Victoria Baines, in her first major part for the society, grew in confidence after an understandably slightly nervous beginning.  Victoria’s persona mirrored “Maria’s” as the personal insecurities were quickly overtaken by measured assertiveness and growing confidence over the course of the production.  Victoria’s acting and voice was indeed well suited to the role and she gelled well with Geoff Clifford Brown (Capt. von Trapp) as the patriarch of the von Trapp family.  Although a strict disciplinarian with his children and staff, as played by Geoff he came across as a likeable person, fiercely proud of his nation, who was willing to ‘bend’ - but not too far.

The principal nuns amused the audience with their version of “How do you solve a problem like Maria” with some fine characterisations, and Deborah Wilson, as the Mother Abbess simply blew the audience away with her rendition of “Climb Every Mountain”. Her fine soprano voice was on a par with, if not better than, any Mother Abbess I have seen before.

The children (of whom there were two groups over the four nights) had the ‘Aahh’ factor – especially in Tegan Walmsley, the young lady I saw perform as’ Gretl’, who could easily hold her ‘line’ with a strong singing voice for one so young.  Ciaran Jasper, as’ Liesl’, performed in all four performances as she played alongside Ryan Laverick (Rolf).  At 16 years of age, Ciaran has an opportunity to make a niche for herself in amateur theatre with her sweet voice and confident acting.
Other main principals were Isobel Wheatley and Wilf Donohue (‘Baroness’ and ‘Max’ respectively) - acting out the Baroness’ aloofness and inability to win the hearts of her fiancée’s children, and Max’s innate sense of ‘survival’ in a changing world with humorous dialogue.  It was nice to see the two musical numbers by these characters along with the Captain actually performed.  Too many times I have seen these enjoyable numbers cut.

There were many other small roles in the production including ‘Franz’ and ’Frau Schmidt’ (played by Malcolm and Anne Frank respectively.) The chorus made the most of their limited time on stage as nuns, stormtroopers, partygoers and others.

The production suffered from some first night hitches, with quick costume changes and a couple of late entries which hopefully were overcome on subsequent performances.  It was pleasing, however, to see a new sound system in the hall, as in the past hearing towards the back of the auditorium has had its problems.  Whilst the volume was fine it was unfortunate that the Captain’s personal microphone failed in the first half – another problem I’m sure that would be overcome for the rest of the run.  Scene changes, of which there are many in this production, were fairly slick and didn’t distract too much from the audience’s enjoyment of what was a fine production. Well done to all – especially the children.

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