CAMPS show compared to the best of Broadway

Published 8 Oct 2009 11:09 0 Comments

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With CAMPS preparing to present an evening of music and song this Friday (October 9) in Cumnock Town Hall, Marnie Anderson, who has reviewed shows on London's West End and Broadway, discusses the company's recent production of 'Oliver'

Being new to the area of just several months, I was asked if I would like to attend a musical in Cumnock Academy. At first I was very sceptical as I have been in the West End and Broadway and have seen many professional shows through my life, but my friends told me that this performance would be something else. And they were right. The atmosphere in the school's assembly hall was fantastic even before the show started or the house lights went down, the crew were friendly and very helpful. It was such a tiny hall compared to what I have been used to, but the second the house lights disappeared and the murky lights of the workhouse came up, I felt like I was in a complete trance.

The children playing pick pockets and orphans were simply breathtaking and looking totally outstanding. The characterisation was perfect and each actor paid attention and showed flowing amounts of potential. The choreography was definitely one of the best I have seen in a such a performance, every movement was taken with precision and obviously very well thought out immaculately brilliant choreography.

When one rather inauspicious boy approached to confront the barrel-bellied 'Mr Bumble', we got our first glimpse of Oliver. Little Laura Flemming was magnificent as the scrawny bundle of naivety that the whole narrative revolves around. "Please sir," comes the infamous line, "I want some more". He's done it now, I thought to myself. And when that girl sings, your heart skips a beat, brings a tear to your eye as you realise that what you are looking at is a little girl who is destined to go far.

From here the story really zips along and we get our first few glimpses at how versatile and just plain magnificent the set is. Characterised by an almost cartoon-like vibrancy, sets and backdrops fly in and out but never seem flimsy or cheap. When we finally get to see inside Fagin's Lair, it looks amazing. The subterranean den rises out from the stage with brightly coloured handkerchiefs and pick-pocketed spoils that hang from the grotto walls. Hot and grimy, the claustrophobic lair is one of the finest pieces of stagecraft I've seen in a while. Our first glimpse was Fagin was superb with the audience in anticipation then the lights shone on Fagin, you could feel the audience just crumble with excitement. He was simply a joy to behold. Snively, greasy, Jewish, faintly Eastern-European; he is potentially Dickens' most horrifically anti-Semitic character. Yet, like the great Ron Moody before him, Philip Doole gives the role a humanity and a humour that renders him rather hopelessly adorable. As one might expect, as I have been told Philip Doole is one of the most talented and comedic actors, and as Fagin is a complete hoot. Hilarious from start to finish, the auditorium seems to light up whenever he's on the stage; and he's not got a bad set of pipes either. Okay, he's no Pavarotti, but he upholds his end of the bargain perfectly and never drops a note nor misses a harmony.

Powerful, passionate, desperate and feisty; the enigmatic Nancy was a real powerhouse. 'Oom Pah Pah' was a rather booze-addled romp and 'As Long as He Needs Me' was a strained and heart-wrenching show-stopper. Maybe not the most finely realised character in the history of musical theatre, nor the best female role model in the canon, Nancy was played to reveal her strong and caring side. She has a fantastic rapport with the street kids and has acquired a rather convincing cockney, how's-your-father, rough-and-tumble, salt-of-the-earth accent. Darkness is injected by Bill Sykes as a figure oozing evil, who finally meets his comeuppance in a fatal midnight showdown on yet another brilliantly light London Bridge.

Funny, vibrant and poignant in all the right places, Oliver is simply not to be missed. For such breath-taking talent, and superb directing, effects, and for such a great group of friendly people why does Cumnock not have a Theatre for these creative and insightful people to fully show what they can do, and use themselves to their own complete potential. In my opinion, and many other people I spoke to last night, CAMPS is in NO WAY an amateur company, what the group did last night, and I believe will continue to do, is put on shows that are professional, and will rival even the best professional companies and societies. If you want to see a good show, don't spend hundreds of money travelling down to London or over to New York, visit a CAMPS show.

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