The Wizard of Oz

Phoenix has risen!  What a treat of a visit I had recently to Phoenix Productions who presented a classic favourite “The Wizard of Oz” at Easington Colliery Club.  It was a tough venue to navigate for such a big show, but director Richenda A. Blakelock’s creativity presented the audience with a truly unique immersive experience. The yellow brick road intertwined around the audience seating, with the scarecrow, tin man and lion all being discovered by Dorothy along the way.  This meant scene changes were also cleverly disguised adding to the magic of the performance and Dorothy’s on stage changes from her black and white costume to colour and of course the addition of the ruby slippers were very cleverly masked.  Really unique idea, also with two small side stage set ups for the Wizard’s lair and a reversible set and house representing Dorothy’s house which lands on the witch!  Really cleverly done and such a good use of the space available to them.

The cast were also integrated into the audience from the start which was really different, welcoming us all to our seats and interacting with us all which really started the performance off very well.  We all had flags on our seats to wave when the company travelled through Oz and bubbles for when Glinda appeared on stage.  A lovely way to involve the audience.

The colour palette used echoed the film version with all black and whites for Kansas and as soon as we were in Oz there was an explosion of colour, really well done to set designer and stage manager Rebecca Smith who did a superb job in creating Oz.  Costuming was very good and certainly there was a lot of changes for the cast!

What I do love about Phoenix is how inclusive their cast are.  All are welcome and clearly having fun.  Really well done to all of the cast for being absolutely fantastic and sounding great.  Robert Wilson Baker has done very well and brought out the best in you all.  The ensemble as munchkins, poppies, crows, jitterbugs and the trees were wonderful.  As they were closer to you, it was nice to be able to pick up some of their individual voices and certainly Hayley O’Connor who was closest to me had a really lovely voice, don’t be cautious about singing out Hayley, your voice is lovely.

I was also thrilled to see the BSL interpreted performance with Jackson who was utterly integrated into the cast, making theatre so much more accessible.  Really well done, you put in an incredible shift and I’d love to see more groups follow suit.

Beth Wintle was fabulous as always as Dorothy.  She’s a consistently strong performer and such a lovely person too.  Her rendition of “Over the Rainbow” was gorgeous, sweet, soft and controlled showing off her vocal ability.  I saw Milo playing the role of Toto who seemed a little more reluctant than the rest of the cast but played his part well!  Andy Oliver is always wonderful to work with and a strong performer, but I certainly saw a more dexterous and acrobatic version of him as The Scarecrow and frightening the life out of me dashing out of the stage door!  We had a Tin Gal in Georgina Bailey who was excellent, very strong performances from her with the script appropriately adapted for gender.  The Cowardly Lion was played by Gavin Hobbs, a newcomer to me who was extremely strong on stage, playing with the audience and delivering a sterling performance.  The Wicked Witch was played by director Richenda A. Blakelock extremely well and she had a battle on her hands ridding her face of all the green paint at the end of the evening!  We had a beautiful soft Glinda in Rebeka Hunt and Ashton Blakelock took the role of the Wizard of Oz.  I really thought Rosalind Hill playing Uncle Henry plus various ensemble roles did an excellent job, she has excellent stage presence, is full of enthusiasm and did a wonderful job of the roles she played.  Auntie Em & The Guard were played by Jess Smith very comically and I did very much enjoy her performances.  Supporting roles were also played by Erik Harpsfire, Keira Ridley, Kate Hill, Hayley O’Connor, Martha Cox, Michelle Borwell, Ruby Hawkins, Ella West, Sophie Young and Jess Smith very enthusiastically which the audience very much enjoyed.

I had an absolutely lovely time and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what Phoenix do next.

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