The Witches

Chorley Youth Theatre’s latest production was an excellent play adapted for the stage by David Wood and based on Roald Dahl’s scariest book The Witches and the 1990 British Film of the same name. Directed by Rebecca Moran who was assisted by Alice Charnley and with a talented cast of young performers who all worked hard to bring the various characters to life, this was a very enjoyable afternoons entertainment. The story is about a young boy who lives with his grandmother who goes on holiday to a hotel where the Witches are holding their Annual General Meeting.  The boy’s Grandmother has  already told him how to recognise a Witch, they wear gloves in summer, have funny noses and, worst of all,  they wear wigs covering carbuncular heads  Unfortunately, Witches don't like children they find them smelly and revolting so The Grand High Witch devises a plan to turn all children into mice to wipe them all out by using a magic potion, but the boy and his grandmother  with the help of a friend he meets at the Hotel also have a plan to get rid of The Witches for good, but can they avoid being turned into mice.
All the cast worked well together and the characters were well defined, the central character of the boy was excellently played by a confident Callan Grimshaw Brown and he was well complimented by Emma Manley as his grandmother, they both acted well together and their relationship was very believable. Emma Heyes as The Grand High Witch was completely immersed in her role and produced a very good characterisation, giving a strong performance and Luke Eburne was comedic as Bruno Jenkins the boys friend at the hotel who helped with the plan to defeat the witches. I would like to mention everyone who took part in this play but as there was a large cast I don't want to miss anyone out, however there were some lovely characters produced and there were no weak links, everyone played their part well and all the smaller and cameo roles supported the principle cast very well. Generally, diction was satisfactory and the pace of the play was good but just a constructive comment, some of the cast needed a little more projection when speaking as it was sometimes difficult to hear the dialogue, however overall this was a very good entertaining production thoroughly enjoyed by the audience on the afternoon I visited.

Scenery, staging and technical input was very good as usual with smooth swift transition between the scenes, there were also good special effects and enjoyable puppet performances which were used within the performance effectively, adding another dimension to the production and they went down very well with the young audience.  Costumes, make up and wigs were excellent just like the film adding to the feel and the success of the production. 

Well done to Director Rebecca Moran Assistant Director Alice Charnley, Producer Jack Titherley assistant Producer Lucas Burns Choreographers Lucy McManus and Lucas Burns and all the back stage and technical crew and anyone involved in bringing this production to the stage. Thank you for an excellent entertaining production

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