What the papers say

Our local paper, The News, sent a critic along to the first performances of each part, and I have reproduced his review here. If you have been able to see our production, I would be very interested to hear your views on this review, whether you agree with the general thrust of it, feel something or someone else was worth mentioning or whether, in your opinion, Mr George got it all wrong.

Perhaps you would like to write your own review of the production. That would be fantastic! If you want to do so, just click on the comments link at the end of this post and type in your review there. Please be honest. What worked, what didn't work for you?

Here is what James George thought.

A quantum physicist's dream in the fight of good over evil.

BENCH Theatre's offering for the festive season, is a mighty but cumbersome beast.
It's a rip-roaring good-versus-evil tale set in a series of worlds, parallel to our own, and is, in many ways, a quantum physicist's dream. Director Damon Wakelin doesn't balk at the challenge with a cast of 37 and an enormous set-multi-levelled, multi-faceted and multi-doored – not to mention the splendid puppets.
Acting abilities vary. Add to that a not-too-per­fect adaptation (much stuff considered vital by purists is gone altogether) and what are we left with? Actually, a worthy piece of work.
The beginning of Part One suffers from infor­mation overkill - facts and names thrown out like javelins - but get past this and things quickly improve.
The usual Bench act­ing stalwarts acquit themselves more than admirably, but the big surprises come in the form of two youngsters.
As Lyra, Charley Callaway is a feisty, gutsy heroine with a heart of gold. She gives an excellent, tell-it-as-it-is performance.
Then there's Martin McBride as hero Will. Frankly. One rarely sees so finely-crafted a per­formance from an expe­rienced adult, let alone a youngster. In his work were truth and reality and effortlessness.
It's not festive, but put in the effort and you will be mightily rewarded.

So what do you think? Please send us your own take on our attempts to stage the unstageable!

Well, we're on.

We opened last Thursday, December the 14th, almost exactly 11 months after the auditions were held. It's been a long, long journey, but now we have reached the destination.

The final preparations for the show involved a week-long period of techinacal and dress rehearsals - a considerable luxury for a company used to a single day to complete a get-in, fit-up and dry technical rehearsal, but boy did we need it!

The set itself is a monster, creating a whole new acting level around three sides of the Arts Centre space, with access via ladders, steps and a fireman's pole (much fun was had trying this out, but sadly I don't get to use it in the show itself). five extra entrance points have been created by this additional space, including two huge doors at the back which open up fully to create an extra, if very small, acting space which will be used for scenes such as Lee Scoresby's balloon and Lord Asriel's battle quarters.

It actually took us a week or so to get the set fully completed, including painting, and several large scenes had to be reblocked as new problems were discovered once in the space.

We had several dress rehearsals in this week, all completed in a space in various stages of completion, with painting, sound effects, and video projections being frantically finished for opening night. It's a bit of a cliche, but I am certain it is true that we performed our opening night with paint literally still drying on the set!

It was an intensely busy and stressful time, for everyone. John, the stage-manager, and a handful of other people put in unspeakably long hours to get everything ready. Yet through all this, what has been remarkable is the tremendous cooperative spirit amongst everyone, cast, stage-crew and technicians. This camaraderie and pulling together has been one of the most striking aspects of this whole adventure, and I don't believe I have heard a single voice raised in anger throughout.

As I write this, we have completed 5 performances, three for Part 1 and 2 for Part 2, and each one has been to a sell-out audience. This looks to be the case for the rest of the run, with only a handful of tickets left for one of the performances on the final Saturday.

Audience's have been making lots of positive noises after the show as well, which is always nice, but is possibly to be expected out of politeness. Nonetheless, one can't help picking up a tremendously positive vibe in the foyer, and it looks as though we might have actually cracked it!