All photos by Manuel Harlan

CFT knows how good it is too which is why it confidently turns the theatre over to the ever-talented Dale Rooks and her young performers every Christmas and allows them to stage the venue’s Christmas show with all the production values any other CFT show would get.

Sixty performers (there are two teams) are selected by audition from the youth theatre’s 800 members and what a professional job they do with Anna Ledwich’s fresh, affirmative script. This take on Pinocchio focuses on personal integrity and development. Like every child in the world this puppet boy makes a lot of mistakes but he learns from them and, eventually, comes through with flying colours when presented with the ultimate challenge. And Ledwich even works in some observations about marine pollution without labouring the point too much.

Archie Elliot is delightful as Pinocchio, wobbling as he turns human, learning to speak, communicating in bubbles when he’s under the sea and dancing when he’s turned into a donkey – well, exactly as a donkey would, but he does it with neat grace.

Alfie Ayling’s Geppetto is warmly convincing and Meg Bewley is very strong as the Fairy who watches over  Pinocchio from a distance. Annalise Bradbury is feisty as the exasperated Cricket who accompanies Pinocchio and acts as his usually ignored conscience. And I liked Ella O’Keefe’s powerful performance as Madam Silversaw.

The set is based on an old farm cart which revolves to reveal different scenes. It works well because it provides a small stage in the middle of the playing space and has a balcony on top so at times the action is on three levels. With set design by Simon Higlet and costume by Ryan Dawson Laight, the very commendable policy decision for this show was to work entirely with recycled materials. Thus fabrics were accessed from charity shops and re-dyed and the farm cart is just that. And it all looks terrific.

A show of this sort stands or falls on its ensemble work and this one more than stands. Pinocchio is an episodic piece ( Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio is a series of short stories)

And that’s ideal for youth theatre because you can use different performers in different scenes and everyone has something to do. The shellfish scene is great fun as is the finale when Pinocchio and Geppetto finally get home and set about building a roundabout – which is enacted below the workshop by an ensemble group.

Tom Brady’s music is tunefully full of earworms and ably played by a six piece band above the stage with Colin Billing as MD and playing keys. Especially memorable is the very jazzy rhythmic song sung by the Fox and the Cat, with the saxophone weaving slithery musical magic, as they dupe Pinocchio and steal his money.

And all that has been achieved in safety, observing restrictions and practising social distancing in rehearsal as well as on stage. When two characters really have to hug they mime it – and it works. Well done, all.

At the last minute I decided that perhaps, even for work, I should not drive 70 miles from my London Tier 4 home to see this show in Tier 2 as I’d planned  – so I watched the livestream from home. But oh, how when I saw and heard the audience and the excitement of live theatre, I wished I were there with them.  Next year I hope …

Director Natasha Rickman makes a reasonable fist of creating the required illusion – and given the limitations of this technique I’ve noticed a steady improvement in theatre Zoom skills during this challenging year. This was one of the best I’ve seen so far although it’s no substitute at all for the real thing.

A succinct version of A Christmas Carol, adapted by Naylah Ahmed, it tells the story of Scrooge’s night of enlightenment and rebirth well enough but the topical, pandemic references are unnecessary and don’t work.

Jim Findley’s Scrooge is suitably, laughably cross at the outset but gradually becomes more childlike and gleeful. Findley brings an attractive warmth to the role.

The production’s starry USP is to have rounded up both Penelope Keith and Brian Blessed as, respectively, the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Ghost of Christmas Present. Keith, cheerfully patrician as ever and all swathed in Miss Haversham style ancient lace, pitches it somewhere between a kindly headmistress and an eccentric aunt. Blessed has fun with his usual basso profundo clarity and a strange red velvet circular hat connoting seasonal joviality.

Al the other roles are ably played by Paula James, Robin Morrissey, Lucy Pearson and GSC’s Young Company. Morrissey is especially moving and plausible as Bob Cratchit although I disliked the offputting facial close-ups when he plays Jacob Marley.

A Christmas Carol is, of course, a political piece with Scrooge initially as the face of extreme capitalism and everyone else presenting various levels of liberalism. Somehow that seems more pointed than ever this year. I was moved by the phrase “clinging to hope” at the end. Yes, that’s what we’re all doing right now.

So how do you mount a panto in a pandemic? You base it round the virus itself and you do it online so there’s no chance of being cancelled at the last minute: a decision which has allowed tens of thousands of schoolchildren to see this show – and I bet they had a ball in every sense.

Howard Samuels’ witty book gives us five fairies from different pantomime stories (one in drag) lamenting, in verse, the 2020 situation and the lack of panto. Then they think of a way of doing it and we launch into a coronavirus version of Cinderella. Buttons becomes Bubble, the stepmother is Countess Corona and it’s her mask she loses at the ball so they use track and trace to find her. It’s good, topical fun with lots of quips about rule changing, distancing, rule of six and all the rest of it.

CherAnn Thorkilsen sings with innocent clarity as Covidella and I loved her glitzy 21st Century ball dress. Alex Matthews has oodles of stage presence as Bubble (who has a bit of a thing with Dandelion, the Prince’s sister who isn’t Dandini). Antoine Paulin is deliciously, absurdly sexy with his hip grinding, winking at the audience and attractive tenor voice, spiced with a smidgin of French accent. And Stamatis Seraphim is terrific as Countess Corona striding about pouting, bullying and being theatrically outrageous.

Thomas’s songs and lyrics are catchy and funny and you can hear every pithy word – all the music is original. There’s no reliance on cliché ABBA songs or this year’s hits in this show. Choreography by Helen Siveter is neat and nicely executed.

I have, in general this year, avoided recorded or live shows as a substitute for real theatre but I’m glad I made an exception for this one because it does the student cast proud. Filmed by View 35 it really does showcase every single student with skilful use of close-ups so that we really see and hear what each of them can do – and they can do a great deal so I hope agents are paying attention. The sound quality is uneven in places but that did not detract from my enjoyment.

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/every-time-i-see-themta-a-musical-theatre-college-founded-by-annemarie-lewis-thomas-in-2009-in-action-im-struck-first-by-the-talent-of-the-students-and-second-by-the-quality-of-the-training/