As the first play of their series, The Carlton Players bring Tim Firth’s Flint Street Nativity to the Little Theatre in Birkenhead.
As I enter the Little Theatre this evening, I instantly feel warm and welcome. My first visit to this lovey theatre and it certainly won’t be the last. With a lovely bar/waiting area downstairs and the auditorium upstairs, the ushers couldn’t do enough to make our visit a great one. One thing that stands out is the accessibility of the building, for such an old building, there is a lift down to the bar and a lift up to the auditorium, something that makes a return visit cemented in my eyes.
Directed by Marc Smith, we are transported to Miss Horricks’ class where the juniors are putting on their nativity. But will everything go smoothly? We are about to find out.
The set is a classroom, with everything in the background a larger size, to give us the feeling that we are watching children in the classroom. With the occasional slight set change to portray a store cupboard, a climbing apparatus and the reveal at the end to make the room looking at it from an adult perspective, simple changes but effective.
The cast have a big job on their hands, trying to portray seven-year-olds, finding that child within and being confident enough to bring that alive and have fun with it. For the most, they get it right and there is a lot of laughter and joy happening. There are a couple on stage that I feel are not quite letting go, not letting that child play enough. This play needs everyone to relax, let go of feeling embarrassed and just go for it, then you will have the audience with you from the off.
Tom Jenkinson is fantastic as Ryan (Joseph/Herod), throwing himself into the role, enhancing the childness and giving a great impression of Question of sport. Samantha Haddock plays the Ashley (Angel Gabriel) with the right amount of bossiness as a seven-year-old, with the perfect attitude, capturing that child quality fantastically. She IS going to be Mary!!! Evan Dunn as Andrew (The Ass) is hilarious, spending a lot of time in the background not speaking but constantly doing something funny, so when he does have lines, it makes it even more effective.
We also have Chris Clinton as Adrian, Gareth Crawshaw as Bradley, Hariclia Grammenou as Shamima, Laura Smith as Jess, Liam Carr as Marcus, Lorraine Langerhuizen as Jenny Bennett, Paula Condliffe-Hughes as Zoe and Paul Griggs as Tim (Narrator). Griggs stood out for me in the final scene as Narrator’s Dad, this was delivered fantastically, and I felt a little emotional in this part.
The songs in this show are based on every day Christmas carols but with a twist to tell the story of each child and the cast work extremely hard as they are not the easiest songs and especially to backing tracks as you have to get the timing perfect. For the most, they do a fantastic job, there are times when timing is lost or a line or two missed but as a child would do, you smile and carry on regardless.
You could see some opening night nerves and there were a few opening night hiccups, missed lines, a prompt having to throw out the occasional line but overall, the cast pulled together to cover any mistakes and deliver a fun show for us audience. Projection, I feel, is something that needs working on as there are a few times lines cannot be heard, especially when further back in the stage.
One thing I want to point out that I personally feel is an issue is lighting. I feel it is a little fussy and there are many missed cues, with cast members in darkness a lot of the time. This could be down to being opening night and it being a little technical but feel like it could be simplified a lot. It is set in a classroom, and I feel it doesn’t need so many blackouts and lighting effects. Keeping it simple is sometimes the better option.
The one scene I feel needs more work is the final scene as this wraps the play up and I personally feel it needs to be snappier. There are missed lines and it feels a little uncomfortable at times, waiting for lines to be delivered.
Overall, this is a fun play and definitely worth a watch, with many laughs. Thank you to the Carlton Players for a fun evening.
Running until Saturday 9th November with tickets available from www.carltonlittletheatre.co.uk
Reviewer: Damian Riverol
Reviewed: 6th November 2024
North West End UK Rating: