Malvern Festival Theatre – until 12th August 2022
Reviewed by Julie Bellerby
3***
This production was performed by Malvern Theatres Young Company. Established in 2012 this group allows young people between the ages of 8 – 25 to perform in a professionally staged theatre.
This much loved play by Oscar Wilde, adapted and Directed by Nic Lloyd, was performed by 7 up and coming students of Acting, who, I am sure, will have amazing careers in the theatre.
It appeared they were slightly unrehearsed, but with only 2 weeks to bring the performance together, did an admiral production of this play.
Special mentions of the acting ability of both Rhys Harris-Clarke who played the Rev Canon Chasuble, Lane and Merriman, and Ellie Ricci playing Lady Bracknell were strong in their roles with belief of their characters from the start.
Edward Kirby, playing John Worthing and Henry Pyne playing Algernon Moncrieff worked well bouncing off each other, with a very enthusiastic ‘fight’, which struggled to make this believable whilst the audience were on three sides of the performance arena.
The nerves did show at the beginning of the play by a couple of actors, who grew in confidence as the production continued. I think some of the comedic lines were delivered to quickly and the audience did not pick up on some of them, so were lost in the speed of delivery.
The Stage was minimalistic, with the characters moving from chair to chair constantly, so all sides of the audience could see and hear. I thought this was not yet quite right and should have more thought, before moving to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival next week.
Costumes were perfect, designed by Bridget Lloyd and depicted each character well.
Overall, this shows the ability of each of the young Actors who will, I’m sure, grow in confidence each night, to provide an entertaining play of the most importance!