Book by JULIAN FELLOWES
Music by GEORGE STILES - Lyrics by ANTHONY DREWE
Based on the book by KENNETH GRAHAME
Performance Dates 20th - 23rd October 2021 (Saturday 23rd is a matinee only)
The Mitre Theatre, Trinity School, Croydon
With lockdown seeming like a distant memory, we are now full of excitement to begin rehearsals for our second post-Covid production, The Wind in the Willows, a musical tale by Stiles and Drewe, The Production team were delighted with the talent on offer at the auditions and are proud to announce the confirmed cast (please see below).
Rehearsals are due to start on Thursday 2nd September and performances will be held at The Mitre Theatre, Trinity School, from 20th – 23rd October – tickets will be available on www.ticketsource.co.uk/mitreplayers from 1st September. This wonderful show is suitable for the whole family, so tickets are bound to sell fast.
If you are interested in being involved in the ensemble of the show, but missed the opportunity to attend the auditions, please contact our director, Helen Harries-Rees, on helenreeshhr@hotmail.com. Likewise, if you want to be involved with any creative aspects of the show, such as set-building, painting, or backstage crewing, please get in touch with the Mitre Players Committee for more information.
Here is Theo Spring's review:
Big Fish: The Mitre Players: Trinity School, Croydon
What a marvellous musical. What a talented cast. What a huge amount of hard work to present a production of such a high standard. You may guess that I just loved it!
Happily having worked out the time lines and relationships involved. it was easy to follow Edward Bloom’s Walter Mitty thinking, following his inventive brain right to the heart of his sometimes outrageous tales. The Alabama Stomp was both effective for the catching of fish and delivered the first piece of much upbeat choreography, for which Jo Morrison should take a huge bow.
So many diverse characters came to life during Edward’s fantasies. Laura Mackie’s witch - full of agility and guile, Kate Gauntlett’s balletic mermaid and Ziggi Szafranski’s Hagrid-like giant - who had such an overpowering presence.
Mike Mackenzie, with his strong singing voice created an Edward who flowed calmly through the tale, creating believability as he went, but it was Chris Backway as young Edward who enacted the tales. Constant energy and with enviable acting and dancing skills, he truly brought his character and the stories to life. Commendable too was Eddie McConnell as the even younger Edward, showing good stage presence and reliability.
Edward has a son - Will, who has grown weary of his father’s constant tales. Simon Long captured the dichotomy of filial love versus both embarrassment and sometimes anger. More excellent vocals here, particularly in the delivery of the emotional number Stranger. Coping well with Edward’s make-believe as well as his job as a travelling salesman, his wife Sandra truly loves both him and their son Will. Nicky Chambers had the air of an all-American mom, singing about the two men in her life and, exceptionally sensitively, I Don’t Need A Roof at the bedside of the dying Edward.
The family is extended on Will’s wedding day by Toni Raye as his wife Josephine - pregnant and practical, she was a tower of strength for Will.
Living in the small town of Ashton, Edward is very popular - Ashton’s Favorite Son in fact. Although his fictitious tales take him into the giant’s cave when no-one else will go and to the thrills of the big top, no-one is aware of his real achievement - that of helping to save Ashton’s townsfolk when their town was about to be flooded by a dam.
As well as time-line changes for Edward, other characters have their younger and older selves. Megan Brown effectively played the younger Sandra, joining young Edward in the charming Daffodils, with Wordworth’s poetic words entwined into the lyrics. Played by Kate Gaunlett, Edward’s first love Jenny also reappears later in the real story, with Louise Gauntlett playing her mother.
Remaining in Ashton, Edward’s teenage rival Don and his brother Zacky finally become good and important citizens with David Harries Rees and Tom Lilley delivering both their teenaged selves and the more responsible adults.
There are more characters to meet. Colin Warnock as the circus owner Amos Calloway with an uncomfortable secret of his own. It is at his circus there is an incredible envisaging of the two circus elephants who made deposits of their own. Ian Brown is the Mayor of Ashton and Neil O’Gorman is both the fictitious General Patterson and the Dr Bennett who diagnoses Edward’s life-threatening cancer tumour. There are the lively dancing Alabama Lambs - Chrissy Amer, Gemma Lilley and Ellie McConnell and the evil Red Fang - Fiona Lilley. The ‘ahh’ factor came at the end of the show with Will’s now-born son appearing. Barnaby Brown rather steeling the limelight.
To call this an all-singing, all-dancing musical is a bit of an understatement. So many songs, intricate dance numbers and wonderful costumes by Karen Durrell and Mike Mackenzie (when did he find the time I ask?).
Musical Director Shaz Dudhia and his musicians played an enormous part in the success of the show but the person who held all the strings and was responsible for the whole amazing production was director Julia Ascott whose achievement was beyond remarkable with, as she herself acknowledged, more than a little help from her talented friends.
In April 2019, the Mitre Players presented the wonderful, award-winning thriller, “Deathtrap” by Ira Levin.
Here is the review from local theatre critic, Theo Spring:
Because this play is well known to me, the building of tension by this excellent cast and their director is all the more praiseworthy. The many twists and turns involving deceit, murder and apparent resurrection brought gasps from the audience and, the first ‘killing’ in particular was given a huge element of speed and surprise.
Paul Grace, elegantly aged up as playwright Sidney Bruhl, swung effortlessly between malevolence and apparent kindness, as he lulled his wife into a very false sense of security and, throughout the play, it was his face that gave away his malicious thoughts, whilst his body language stayed calm and careful.
As the playwright bursting with ideas for his next production, Simon Long as Clifford Anderson was the perfect antidote to Bruhl’s evil, albeit that he colluded in the plans to bring about the heart attack that successfully killed Bruhl’s wife Myra.
He managed to transform himself into several different characters - the slightly over-awed playwright hoping for the success of his first play, the partner in crime, the slightly subservient secretary and finally the man with both foresight and the strength not to be quite done in by an arrow in his chest. Simon Long brought to all of these a slightly different personae, whilst never giving the game away as to his next move.
For Sarah H Gordon, the role of Myra was less complex, although she too had to be both the concerned wife as well as colluding in the murder she believed was taking place which was quite a tricky juxtaposition.
The serious plot of the play is lightened beautifully by the psychic neighbour Helga Ten Dorp, to whom Isobel Warner brought just the right amount of Eastern European accent, eccentricity and comedy. Costumed in glitter and sparkle, redolent of Madame Arcati, her hit and miss predictions added to the stealth of the tale and her business acumen helped close this often dark play on a lighter note.
Adding a note of sensible sobriety, Geoff Thorn took the cameo role of Porter Milgrim, the solicitor who brought the news of the paucity of Myra’s estate.
I am constantly amazed at Mitre’s ability to create such effective and workable sets within the confines of the small area at their disposal. Here Alan Collins managed to create a sense of space and of more of the house and garden than just the stable office in which the action takes place for which he deserves full credit for his ingenuity. The hard task of the sourcing of weapons, particularly the important crossbow, fell to Elizabeth Lee and Sue Long, in charge of props, and their range, displayed so prominently on the walls of the office, added much to plot. Sound (James McLeod) and Lighting (Alan Bishop) also played an important part, with a particular mention for a storm which wouldn’t have been out of place in King Lear.
Anna Warnock’s costumes provided a selection of just the right jumpers for our protagonists to sport, keeping very much to the late 1970’s era.
This play, which has had major professional popularity, is now a staple of the amateur drama circuit and the unease and apprehension built up here would be hard to beat, so to director Julie Cumbo goes the accolade of keeping the tension going and the twists and turns hidden until they, sometimes literally, jumped out at you. A production of which to be justly proud.
