Review for Our Day Out
- October 2006
Review by Simone (29.10.06)
On Saturday I watched the final performance of Our Day Out, and what
a day out it was!
Hilarity from the start with Martin Clifton giving us a highly amusing Lollipop
Man, followed closely by Steve Clements as the Bus Driver giving us a slightly
'Elvis-esque' song about driving the bus. These were not the focus of the
evening however, and quite rightly so.
The young cast gave us many strong and surprising performances, some with
a great Liverpool accent, especially Poppy Bunce playing a school girl that
found everything 'Boring Miss', and all seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.
Special praise must go to Emma Preuss playing Mrs Kay, who portrayed the
part of a caring teacher very well, Joey Reid playing Colin Davies, who
managed to look suitably scared when being very closely admired by two of
his female pupils and Cherry Mawby playing Carol Chandler, the little girl
desperate to escape her life. She sang her song 'Why Can't It Always Be
Like This' to a totally silent audience with only piano accompaniment, the
slight nervousness to her voice only adding to the overall effect of vulnerability
she managed to carry through the whole show.
Without doubt the person for me that shone through was Christian Grimes.
His performance of a stiff 'no-nonsense and no fun!' Teacher was performed
with great diction and character and his song was delivered with faultless
timing. He transformed from stiff upper lip to joviality and back again
in a very believable and interesting performance.
Darren Little had, as I understand it, stepped in to fill a role, and considering
the age of the cast, and his usual acting talent, he managed to blend in
well. It is no offence to Darren, but if I had to give one criticism it
would be that, for me, it was a shame one of the other young boys could
not have been placed in that role instead as I did feel there were one or
two others with only a line here and there that could have been considered.
I am sure there was good reason for this however.
That said, it did not detract from the show, and with the great piano accompaniment
by Josh Dawson and the simple, but very effective set, by Jonathan Barley,
I congratulate Nettie, Martin and all the cast for thoroughly enjoyable
'Day Out'.
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Review by Nigel Kerton (27.10.06)
DIRECTOR Nettie Powell predicted there would be hardly a dry eye at
the end of Pewsey Youth Theatre’s production of Our Day Out and she wasn’t
far wrong.
There could have been few in the packed opening night audience that did
not feel their heart strings being twanged as angelic ten year old Cherry
Mawby sang. The audience, ranging from young children to OAP’s, was stilled
as Cherry sang the final number Why Can’t It Always Be Like This.
The Willy Russell musical play revolves around a school’s “progress class”
– the non-performers – who are taken for a day out on a bus. It’s set in
Liverpool and most of the cast adopted perfect Scouse accents.
Producer Martin Clifford, who played a couple of cameo parts, came up with
a very simple stage layout in the Bouverie Hall with an stage extension
reaching out to the audience that became the bus.
The play is a social commentary on children from an area of have-nots being
taken to the seaside, most of them for the first time. The excellent cast
of youngsters ranging from ten to 16 portrayed a range of emotions from
boredom to frustration and longing for life away from the city grime.
The whole cast was excellent, young musical director Josh Dawson’s piano
accompaniment was superb.
It may have been the “progress class” but everyone in the audience gave
every pupil and their staff ten out of ten for this performance.
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