The Boys of Syracuse

The size of the venue and no doubt the budget, has led to some major doubling in parts. From a cast of 22 named roles in the original, this production features just eight performers. At times, this can be a test for the audience to work out which part they’re playing, but perhaps this adds something to the natural confusion already in the story.

From a performance perspective the star of the show is Karen Wilkinson, fresh from her performance in Standing at the Sky’s Edge. Whenever she is on stage the scenes come to life and all feel secure. Hot on her heels for leading female are Caroline Kennedy and Georgie Faith. The trio’s rendition of 'Sing for your Supper' was a real moment of harmonic beauty. Sadly, their singing skills are not matched by all the company. There were times, particularly when the men were on stage, when we wondered if we were watching an under-rehearsed amateur group. If this was the case, a couple of the characters would certainly have been directed to be on the back row of the chorus, but with such a stripped back production this is not possible. What would have been possible would have been for every member of the company to be secure in the script. In this performance it felt like a few scenes needed a few more days rehearsal – people walking into dark patches on the stage and microphones not open enough to carry the complex vocals are all things that could be easily sorted. Hopefully after a few more performances these errors will have settled down.