The Wizard of Oz

One of the great pleasures of being a Noda rep is watching new talent emerge and seeing the junior section of 4SIXTEEN perform The Wizard of Oz certainly gave some food for thought on that front.

The story is a slight variation on L Frank Baum’s original film version in that the Wizard asks Dorothy and her Companions to bring him the Wicked Witch of the West’s broom to earn his help. Other than that, the story followed the traditional tornado carrying Dorothy far from her home and following the yellow brick road to find her way back to Kansas via the Emerald City. This version was directed by George Lacey, Samantha Smith and Freddie Skeel.

The set by Sophie Kelk in the Studio One performance theatre with the audience on all four sides of the oblong floor was of course The Yellow Brick Road, with yellow bricks painted down the middle of the floor, cleverly decreasing in size to show the road disappearing into the distance. Nice touch. To either side we had matching green bricks superbly highlighting the yellow road itself. Very clever. With a studio theatre and no real possibility of meaningful scenery, 4Sixteen have certainly learnt how to make the most of their floor space over the years.

We now have a new lighting and sound crew in Reuben Clooney and Lyra Collis who between them did an excellent job with Emily Green designing the sound. 4SIXTEEN have certainly built an outstanding reputation in these technical areas and these two look set to carry that on for the next generation of pupils.

Costumes by Samantha Smith and Sophie Kelk were almost faithfully reproductions of the original film, especially the Tin man with his silver barrel outfit. And the straw hands and facial make up for the scarecrow were particularly well done. Our Lion very effectively settled for a brown skirt and gold top with lion’s ears attached to her headband. Not to forget the stunning blue winged monkey outfits, or the military green uniforms for the Gatekeepers and of course the silver shoes for Dorothy. Nor all the green sunglasses which were greeted with a chuckle from the audience.

We started off with a clever reproduction of the Tornado that carries Dorothy away by the whole cast going round and round getting faster and faster until even we felt dizzy as they all exited! And ended with The Wicked Witch being showered in a bucket of water, aka confetti. In between we took the magical journey down the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City with an enthusiastic cast consisting of years three and four.

The casting is split into two teams, Blue and Yellow. We saw the Blue team with a total cast of twenty-six. It was also the opening night of the run, so a few nerves were understandably on show. However, Hermione Moore, the young lead playing Dorothy, showed no such nerves. She commanded the stage from moment one when she came on with Toto in her basket. She gave an incredibly confident performance, with great diction and projection and totally aware of her surroundings, and with little nods of her head to fellow cast members was at times cleverly directing the action and controlling the pace. Definitely one to watch for the future.

The Scarecrow, played by Joseph Woods-Hughes looking for a brain, The Tin Woodman played by David Rusu and The Lion played by Emmeline Collyer, were her perfect companions and made a great team clearly putting the story over very well indeed.

Our Wicked Witch played by Michaela Fuertes Morentin spat evil at us whilst staring into her crystal ball and following Dorothy’s progress towards The Emerald City with evil intent, backed up by her Captain of the Winged Monkeys played by Eleanor Bamber. And of course Glinda, our good fairy played by Eloise Habershon helps to put it all right in the end whilst Laiken Pickering and Malachi Bortey guarded the entrance to The Emerald City. Oz of course is all noise and bluster and makes himself out to be a giant ogre, with a sound effect echo voice that certainly made the audience sit up, so when he appears he is, of course, nowhere near as scary as he sounds, which Soren Schnieder as Oz put across rather well.

The Chorus of Munchkins, Mice, Winged Monkeys and guards all sang their hearts out to some well-rehearsed routines with much clever use of the aisles between the audience. The Mice crept around demurely, The Winged Monkeys flew around showing off their splendid blue wings and the Munchkins sang their hearts out to the delight of an audience of parents and grandparents.

Acknowledging this was a cast of 7 – 9 year olds; spreading their “performing arts” wings for the first time I wasn’t expecting a perfect performance; with entrances often a little late, and not so surprising with a such a large cast to muster; some of the script did go walkabout, however this age group have definitely shown their enthusiasm for the theatre. Best summed up for me by one of the chorus who came on a bit late, slipped into his position right in front of me and stood with an enormous cheeky grin on his face, obviously thoroughly enjoying himself. And that’s what it is all about!

So well done to Directors, George Lacey, Samantha Smith and Freddie Skeel and their cast and crew. 4Sixteen has established a high reputation over the years and watching these youngsters taking their first steps in adding to that reputation was a great pleasure!

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