Amelie is a light, layered romantic comedy that interrogates love, loneliness, purpose and progress – and this production by the young cohort of the University of Sheffield was a strong presentation of the famous French work.
Alfie Cowgill and Katie Weller’s direction was resolute – an adept understanding of space and dimensions, engaging vignettes and consistent emotional narrative evoked by this ensemble cast. Charlie Harmer and Tessa Chan’s musical direction was equally as well touched, although these driving orchestrations did not always interplay well with each other with some disjointed and missed cues.
Some transitions were handled excellently, and the world was well crafted for this. This demonstration of theatrical intellect was fleeting, which is a shame as there was clearly a good understanding on display. Dead space and blackouts became too familiar with the work, creating a disjointed experience.
Fortunately, this didn’t take away too much from the beautifully considered tones of song, sound and vision – all married within Dylan Phelp’s intricate and sophisticated set design. At its best simple yet effective, but also bold and ambitious for a production of this kind. Choreography by Lucy Thickett was strong and embellished the work appropriately with a really great use of crowd work and physical imagery.
This large cast held their own in this vocal heavy work, all demonstrating they possess the pipes to hold their own and also step out and upwards if called upon. This is seen whether it’s Nathan Cook’s Elton John moment, which was fantastical and very well executed, or Rhiannon Finn’s utterly delightful Lucien Villaparisis, who bursted with endearing energy – an utter joy to watch. The two leads, Orlaith Day and Will Merritt proved themselves to be excellent performers. Vocally refined, emotionally coherent and theatrically adept, the two appropriately anchored the work through the titular character Amelie and Nino’s serendipitous romance. Day’s performance felt restrained at times but impressed sufficiently in all other departments to justify such praise. Merritt at times displayed a slightly excessive introspection but this funnelled focus also led to powerful emotive displays. There is lots to appreciate in these young performers.
Jess Hamilton’s young Amelie and the decision to use puppets was refreshing and done to subtle yet great effect, and certainly one of the most commendable executions on display. Ben Jowitt’s fatherly Raphael was very precise and playful where appropriate but always playing the seriousness of their French counterpart’s intentions to ensure the greatest comedic effect. Grace Fryer shined at Amelie’s mother Amandine and offered a grounded yet impressive performance, with a great voice to boot. Eve Catanach, Maddie Hicks and Ellie Potter excelled in their roles respectively and shared one of the production’s strongest musical performances. They possessed a really strong humourous understanding and delivered their moments with great precision and an air of infectious confidence. Evan Donninger and Hollie Atkin also offered up a well-studied pair of performances, balancing effortlessly sincere and comedic sensibilities with no difficulty whatsoever. Natalia Prucnal and Winko gave good performances when called upon, as did the ensemble cast of Liv Slater, Freya de Monte, Kirsty Oakley, Sophia Kim, Emily Williamson and Charlie Moffat (with a special shoutout to Rory Violent’s fantastic garden gnome).
For all its quaint and delicate purposes, the piece did feel somewhat pedestrian and static at times. Although this isn’t your knock-their-socks-off musical, there was an unintended complacency present in some pieces of performance which challenged the audience at times. But there is an earnest quality on display. It is effortful, sincere and considered, and worthy of an audience. As far as amateur work goes, this has all the hallmarks of a great show, presented by talent with high ceiling.
Amelie is running until Saturday 14th December at the University of Sheffield Drama Studio. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/sheffield/drama-studio
Reviewer: Louis Thompson
Reviewed: 11th December 2024
North West End UK Rating:
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