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Matilda – The Extraordinary Story!
The Seaford Musical Theatre Junior cast of Matilda performed to sold out audiences at The Barn Theatre in Seaford in July 2022. Every single member of this talented cast performed at a high standard and received some well-deserved standing ovations!
Many of us will remember the magical story of ‘Matilda’ written by the famous Roald Dahl as a book we read and a film we watched many times! Matilda is the story of an incredible little girl with extraordinary powers. The musical opens with the song ‘Miracle’ where the children boast about being their parents miracles, unfortunately the same cannot be said for Matilda who’s parents who are unkind and cruel. Matilda manages life by playing pranks on her parents and sings about being just a little bit ‘Naughty.’ Matilda buries her head in library books and creates her own world and stories to escape her reality.
Unfortunately her school life is not her sanctuary and is just as bad as her home life with a cruel headmistress, Miss Trunchbull who’s motto in life is ‘Children are Maggots’ she performs ‘The Hammer’ and shows the audience just how horrible she is! One thing that Matilda does find at school is a beautiful friendship with her teacher, Miss Honey who sees what an extraordinary girl Matilda is. Miss Honey is a wonderful teacher however is shy and fragile and cannot stand up to the horrible headmistress. The children sing ‘When I grow up’ where they tell their audience about all the things they will do when they are older.
At school the evil Miss Trunchbull forces the children to do a gruelling P.E lesson. Brave little Matilda knows she has to stand up to the mean adults in her life and performs the beautiful song ‘Quiet’ she then miraculously moves a glass using just her feelings and thoughts. Matilda shows Miss Honey her power and after finding out that Miss Trunchbull was actually Miss Honey’s aunt who has stolen her parents will and not fulfilled their wishes, Matilda knows she must do something.
Miss Trunchbull forces the children to take a spelling test, when a word is spelt wrong Miss Trunchbull announces they will be taken to the chokey – all the children get involved thinking this will stop her however she has built more chokeys! Matilda uses her powers to write a message on the blackboard to Miss Trunchbull pretending to be Miss Honey’s Father. This sends the headteacher fleeing, never to be seen again and Miss Honey gets what is rightfully hers.
The last company number ‘Revolting Children’ is performed (brilliantly!) and the audience learn Matilda’s parents have been involved with the Russian Mafia who subsequently arrive, they are moved by Matilda’s intellect and respect that they agree not to harm her parents and the decision is made that Matilda will stay with Miss Honey!
Matilda’s bravery teaches Miss Honey, her classmates and the audience that even though life can be hard at times, “nobody but me is gonna change my story” so ‘sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty!”
The productions saw two stunning performances from the Matilda’s who won the hearts of the audiences with their acting and singing abilities along with their energy. It was very clear both girls had worked incredibly hard on the role and it paid off!
The actress taking on the role of Miss Trunchbull had a hard job but sailed through pulling off the ghastly character excellently! Both Miss Honey’s sung with confidence and played the role incredibly believably.
Matilda’s parents were comic gold and heard lots of laughter from their audiences. The audience also enjoyed strong supporting roles of Michael, Mrs Phelps, The Escapologist and The Acrobat along with a very strong ensemble cast.
This production of Matilda was directed by Emma Edwards who is quite frankly a genius. Her direction and musical direction was beautiful, the set was cleverly designed and saw the cast flawlessly moving boxes with letters that spelt out the different scenes. There were so many gorgeous moments that were all down to Emma and the cast were incredibly lucky to have been directed by this talented professional.
Donna Bull led the choreography and it was a joy to watch. The cleverness and storyline of the moves performed by the cast shon through. The timing by the ensemble was very good and their performance was up to a high standard. The cast of this production were very lucky to have such an inspiring choreographer.
Kate Long, Producer has clearly worked tirelessly on this show, everything worked like a well-oiled machine and that is down to the long hours of work from Kate. She is a real asset to the company and we are all very grateful for everything she does. Sound and lighting were headed up by James Nolan, assisted by Tanya Ryan and Robert Marlow and they did the show justice, setting the scene to a high standard. Hilary Ryan organised the costume along with Kate and the cast were dressed wonderfully!
This production of Matilda was a fantastic watch and all the audiences feedback has been fantastic. Seaford Musical Theatre Company are so proud of what the juniors have achieved and a HUGE well done and thank you to everyone involved for an outstanding production!
