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Show: Made in Dagenham
Society: Performance Preparation Academy – PPA (student productions)
Venue: Eve Lyons Studio Theatre, Walnut Tree Close, Guildford GU1 4UG
Credits: Book by Richard Bean. Music by David Arnold. Lyrics by Richard Thomas.
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 17/11/2018
Made in Dagenham
Chris Abbott | 18 Nov 2018 10:25am
Once again, PPA have mounted a full-scale piece of musical theatre in their studio space, offering audiences the chance to see such work at close quarters. The standard is high, as always, and this is also a production that benefits from good use of video projections (Kevin Oliver Jones, also Musical Director) which help to guide audiences through the multiple settings. Made in Dagenham is a show that came and went all too quickly, although it does seem to have found a following among amateur companies. For students like those at Performance Preparation Academy the show is a good choice, offering a range of roles and a lot of ensemble work.
Rachel Sargent’s choreography makes inventive use of the space available, and I particularly enjoyed the use of tap shoes to create the sound of the factory and the male and female chorus opening numbers. Director Christopher Howell knows the show well having been in the cast of the London production, and has recreated the show for PPA with verve and invention, making good use of the space and cast.
There is some double-casting of the main roles, and at the performance I attended, the lead role of Rita was played by Charlotte Nash, who gave a sincere and thoughtful performance and was more than up to the vocal requirements. Opposite her as Eddie, though with rather less stage time, was Jack Stark, looking every inch the car worker, totally at home in the part and he rose to the challenge of his final number. Chelsea Little was an appropriately low-key Connie, a character given a different story in the musical from that in the film. Monty, too, is a more sympathetic character in this script, and Samuel Quick was well able to convey the sadness of the character as well as his public persona.
In the usual strong but large cast it is difficult to know who else to mention, but Jordan Dann as Beryl was always eminently watchable and I wondered again why the writers didn’t give this character her own number. Megan Evans was a believable and well-sung Lisa Hopkins, no easy task for a part which can seem like a caricature. As always with student productions, the cast were less convincing when playing much older characters, but that is hardly surprising. Despite the difficulties of these roles, Tommy Pegg convinced as Hopkins and Cameron Jacob Foster was an entertaining if unlikely Harold Wilson (with the wrong raincoat). As Barbara Castle, Charlie Clay took no hostages and embodied the spirit of the character if not the physical likeness.
With a large ensemble cast in a small studio theatre, it is also sometimes possible to spot particular cast members who are making the most of what they have been given. For me, with this in mind, the comedy performance to remember was from Georgie Lovatt as Rosie and various other characters. She can get laughs just from looking at a plastic pigeon, and anyone who can eat biscuits at the side of the stage so entertainingly while all around her dance and sing, deserves to go far…
- : admin
- : 17/11/2018