Trial By Jury and HMS Pinafore

This was the last of four performances at three venues by this society and that, in itself, is a challenge when you consider the transferring of scenery and the fact that the stages are all of a different size.  With this particular evening’s entertainment, which wasn’t short by any means, the team also gave us two shows, starting with Trial by Jury.

The society did well in making sure that parts across the two shows were spread about, thus giving different cast members the opportunity to show off their talents.  I enjoyed both shows and I thought that Zoe Sellens (Angelina), Paul Goodwin (Council for the Plaintiff) and Peter Jonas were strong in Trial.  They were very ably supported by Neil Gower as Edwin, the Defendant, and Joseph Marshall as the Usher.

In HMS Pinafore the stand out performances were given by Alice Giblin as Josephine and Peter Perkins as Captain Corcoran, her Father.  They both possess superb voices and tremendous stage presence and it was a joy to watch and listen to them.

Keeping up with them in terms of quality of performance was Stuart Sellens as Ralph Rackstraw who falls for Josephine.  He too has a glorious voice and showed it to perfection in his duet with Alice.

I really enjoyed Tony ‘DR’ Davy-Rogerson as Dick Deadeye and he managed to extract a great deal of comedy from the role.  Val Marshall played Little Buttercup nicely and John Lamb as Sir Joseph Porter and Elizabeth Franklin as Cousin Hebe both gave enjoyable performances.

The singing of both principals and chorus was lovely throughout the evening although, at times, it was difficult to hear everything.  Maybe the reason was a combination of some of the cast not projecting and the excellent Kingston Savoy Orchestra being a bit too loud at times.

The costumes were bright and I thought that both sets were functional and effective.

When I go to the theatre I like to be entertained and, here, I was and I appreciated the manner in which the humour within each production was brought to the fore.  I wasn’t alone!

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