Connecting professional and amateur theatre in Newbury, West Berkshire and beyond

A Class Act

A Class Act  A Class Act's web site is at a-class-act.co.uk.

 

Next production

Scurrilous, 20th to 22nd May, 19:30
David Slade's brand new play charts the lives and loves of five friends from the care free days of their youth, through to the more troubling times of injury and recovery, broken dreams and new found joys. Scurrilous is a love story set in Birmingham and Afghanistan. While unafraid to tackle difficult subjects, the play also contains music, humour and exciting dance.

Where

Arlington Arts Centre

Review of Kelly's Eye

12th to 14th February 2009.

From the Newbury Weekly News.

An eye for modern issues

A Class Act Theatre Company: Kelly's Eye, at Arlington Arts, from Thursday, February 12 to Saturday, February 14

It's a brave man who will attempt to write and present an original piece of theatre. David Slade's production of Kelly's Eye was topical, modern, crammed full of good ideas and was both thought-provoking and entertaining.

The theme was bullying - and it was all seen through the eyes of Kelly (Rosie Sinfield) who was excellently and cleverly portrayed on a giant video screen - a powerful presence, narrating and commenting incisively on the unfolding story. This was an innovative and superb touch, underlining Kelly's isolation as she lived out her life in cyberspace.

In a series of vignettes, we met the well-drawn characters - an adult bully, with an impressive performance from Gary Brown as Jesse, and his abused wife Martina, who was well played by Wendy Orpwood (both also delivering great vocals). Then there was the 'posh' family and they were very effectively brought to life by Duncan Mack (William), and Natasha Kendall (Jennifer).

Despite the underlying seriousness of the subject, the script still managed to extract humour, and David Slade has a good ear for contemporary dialogue. This was most evident in the child actors' excellent performances: Louella Wison (Kylie), Beth Slade (Tina), Georgie Robson (Sarah), Paul O'Connor (Gavin), Sarah Baddesly (Victoria), Nicola Brooker (Freya), Ross Agar (Elton) and Ellie Brown (Andrea).

In the playground, the three teenage bullies, Pete Richings (Thom), Shaun Blake (Jed), Rhiannon Garrett (Jules) were also well depicted, Thom finally getting his come-uppance.

Dennis Heath as Monty and John Gibbs as Gordon re-created their camp roles from Azure Blue. They were a favourite with the audience and Rachel Haynes as Heather delivered some cracking dialogue while Siobhan Coates (Avril) and Helen Bazin (Alanis) provided good cameo performances.

R-Te Crew (choreographed by Josh Barrow) added a real urban feel with lively and exciting hip hop dancing - a highlight for me was the opening of the second act - a wonderful piece of theatre.

The setting was simple, but a host of props and furniture accurately set the scenes. The first act would have benefited from some judicious pruning and some of the musical numbers, while good in their own right, jarred a little, for me at least, in the course of the action. That said, there was loads of talent on view and it was in all, most interesting and enjoyable - congratulations to all concerned.

TREVOR DOBSON

Previous Productions

A Christmas with A Class Act, 12th December 2009
Kelly's Eye, 12th to 14th February 2009.
Azure (Blue) How Do You Feel?, 27th to 30th June 2007. See the review in the Archive.
Bart Street, 27th to 29th October 2005. See the review in the Archive.
The Third Tunnel, 24th to 26th June 2004. See the review in the Archive.
A Back Stage Pass, 22nd to 24th May 2003. See the review in the Archive.

About us

A Class Act Performing Arts Theatre Company was founded in late 2002. Our aim is to give all ages the chance to perform together and create theatre of a high calibre. There are not many companies in this area that regularly carry out this idea. Indeed many operate this only on a one off basis or only bi-annually, however A Class Act Performing Arts Theatre Company will always endeavour to have our adults and children working on projects in theatre together or on their own.

Juniors from age 10 years are welcome and we have police checked chaperones available during rehearsal and production times.