LAST PRODUCTION

Trial by Jury & The Sorcerer

Director: Aileen Haden, Musical Director: Penny Vere

The chance to see The Sorcerer does not come round very often, so it was a particular pleasure to see a production with such a lively central character and such an arsenal of tricks.

Dave Scott comes likeably to his role, administering a potion that will cause people to fall in love with the first person they see when they wake up. It’s an old story, but it’s still fun.

Richard Hulbert, Lynsey Squair, Emma Burrows and Paul Thompson lead a company that does full justice to the chorus numbers in an operetta that is not over-blessed with catchy music.

Trial By Jury features Paul Ellis as a fetchingly eccentric Judge, Kimberley Kainey and Andrew John as the Plaintiff and the Defendant, and Martin Pritchard as Plaintiff’s Counsel.  All acquit themselves well—but again it is in the chorus numbers that Aileen Haden’s production scores most readily.

             John Slim, Birmingham Mail, 10/4/08