Whistle Down the Wind

I find this a strange tale, with superb opportunities for some highly charged emotional moments, with the hanging question is the man a convict or Christ?  (I do want to share with you however that on my way out pf the theatre two gentlemen were holding a great debate on the fact – so you obviously carried and convinced the audience).  Mission accomplished!

There were unfortunately some sound gremlins on the night I attended with crackles and feed-back very noticeable during Act 1.  I am assuming that they were sorted out, as during act 2 there were no problems apart from the fact that the sound seemed to have been turned up so loud that it distorted the voices both speaking and singing, which of course brings its own set of issues.

Lighting cues appeared slow in places – particularly ‘the fire’.  Had I not seen the show before I am not convinced I would have realised that it was representing a fire.

There were some very ‘odd’ harmonies over the entire show and although I am familiar with the show I do not know it well enough to decide if these were ‘as written’ or the result of some of the cast not being exactly on the note.  I am suspecting the latter as there were a couple of occasions of singers being a little flat.

The opens set looked good and the numerous scene changes were managed well and entirely by members of the cast.  Only once did I seriously doubt the wisdom of this when the major principals moved the packing cases which had formed the base of the fire – I felt this, at that particularly poignant moment moving boxes took them slightly out of character and so diminished the moment a little.

Those few gripes out of the way, the opening ‘anthem’ sung by almost the entire cost, was very well sung and I loved the utilisation of the levels on the stage which created a wonderful opening picture.  Costumes looked appropriate and in keeping with the time line.

The children’s chorus are to be congratulated they worked and sang well with some good reactions and Rule the World was delivered excellently.  The adult chorus created some nice moments again with good characters and relationships with the younger members of the cast.   Principals were generally well cast with some quite stunning characterisations, and believable relationships.

All in all a difficult piece well directed, with the highly charged emotional moments well balanced with some gentle comedic moments.  Well done to all concerned, and thank you for the invitation and for making me so welcome.

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