The Witches of Eastwick

Congratulations to Director, Andrew Wright, this was a masterpiece of theatre and no mean feat to pull off! From the opening Thunder Clap! to the ‘Glory of Me’ the show just flew! ‘Eastwick Knows’ the highly charged first company number introduced all the townsfolk setting the bar for what was to follow! Alex (Cherry Lewis), Jane (Becki Tucker) and Sukie (Sue Collings) bored with all the parochial business and nosey neighbours joined together over a jug of Martini each fantasising how different their lives could be! If only? Enter Darryl van Horne (Edward Creswick) the devil in disguise!

Sex is his game and in turn he seduces Alex, Jane and Sukie. These were intense scenes riddled with humour all done in the best possible taste! All four are masters of their craft and excelled in portraying these sex starved individuals! Plenty of fun and great comic timing. Karen Squance totally embodied the ghastly town busy body Felicia Gabriel and her ability to sing and produce random items out her mouth was a sight to behold. Brian Epps was perfect as the henpecked almost always inebriated husband Clyde. In contrast to the lustful older adults were the young would be lovers! Jennifer Gabriel (Jess Stradling) and Michael Spotford (Will Howlett) both were perfectly adept in portraying innocence and later under Darryl’s influence sexual awakening!     There were many other cameo and principal roles in the production and each of these was brought to life by this talented company.

Choreography was slick and well executed, in particular ‘Dirty Laundry’ (reminiscent of ‘One Brick at Time’ from Barnum). Both principals and company had oodles of energy in their singing making their musical interpretation and diction spot on! Costumes had been well selected and complemented the production. Whoever made the decision to use the white picket fence and the Little Girl was genius making the scene changes seamless, so the show never lost pace. Congratulations to the Stage Manager and his crew, this was not an easy show to manage! Having to cope with flying! As well as the hazards of moving set!  Scene changing was seamless.

Your expertise brought this show to life and more than contributed to the standing ovation the company received. Well done.

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