Hills Youth Theatre presents Mirror Image - Review

Hills Youth Theatre presents Mirror Image - Review

Post
Subscribe

Posted 2014-08-13 by Haydn Radfordfollow

Fri 15 Aug 2014 - Sun 17 Aug 2014



Following the success of Ebenezer Scrooge the Hills Youth Theatre presents the pop musical fantasy Mirror Image at the Stirling Community Theatre.



Mirror Image is where two worlds meet - the tough reality of high school and the fairy tale world where princes are charming and stepsisters are mean and wicked. In this story the characters we know from various fairy tales escape through a portal to the real world of a high school, and that is when the fun begins as reality permeates into the fairy tales and the characters discover they are free to change their roles and become their own heroes.



Some fairy tale characters want to stay in the real world, which creates problems in the fantasy world because the Woodsman (Mitchell McFarlane) is not there to protect Little Red Riding Hood (Zanny Edhouse) from the wolf, and Sleeping Beauty (Emily McCormick) has to chop her own wood, and she keeps pricking her finger on the axe. Meanwhile Cinderella's mean stepsisters, Magda (Ella Heywood-Smith) and Petra (Carina Crowhurst) are creating havoc in the high school student's election, while the Woodsman, who wants a name and to be the hero in his own story for a change, has finally achieved what he has always wanted, he has found his true love, Danica (Eloise Lesue), but she unfortunately presents another dilemma, as she belongs in the real world.



What makes Mirror Image particularly exciting and fun is that some of these Senior Students are playing high school students, which they are familiar with, being students themselves. This production is collaboration between Director, Judy Sampson and the Senior Students of Hills Youth Theatre (HYT). Under Judy's direction the students chose the show, organised their costumes, painted sets, sourced props, played piano, coached on vocals, practiced choreography and performed the play. This hands-on-approach provides a wonderful opportunity for these students to learn, experience and master a wide range of skills relating to theatre production.



Mirror Image is fun and entertaining offering lots of humor, songs, choreography and an entertaining story with some surprising twists. It is a lively production which will appeal to the whole family. There is even some romance between the Woodsman (Mitchell McFarlane) and Danica (Eloise Lesue), his new love interest from the real world. The audience loved this, judging by their many "oohs and aha's" during romantic moments.



Being the first public performance there were a few nervous moments initially when some of the singing could have been a little louder. However, the cast very quickly warmed to the moment and their performances were truly wonderful as they reflected more enthusiasm and confidence as they presented some wicked choreography and tuneful songs. The musical routines and choreography by Rebecca Plummer and Madeline Shields was very well done and were among the highlights of this production.



Another special segment of each performance happens during interval when children attending the play who have come dressed as their favourite story book character get to walk on the 'big stage' to show off their outfit and receive a lolly. The parents and audience find this really cute and a lot of fun, (which it is), and who knows, we could have a future theatre student in our midst?


I was lucky enough to meet April who came dressed as Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter stories and Miriam came as Magda, the wicked step-sister from Mirror Image.



Once again, Hills Youth Theatre with the aid of Jon McKay and his creative lighting production team, Peter Collins and Tim Williams provided a wonderful array of colourful lighting effects and amazing scenery and backgrounds with the rear projection system.

This is an entertaining play with lots of humour and the cast delivered their witty punch lines with good timing creating lots of laughter from the audience. It is an engaging story with some surprising twists, which offer another humorous side to the many fairy tale characters we all know. It is hard to imagine if any one watching this play will ever see these fairy tales and their characters again quite the same, without smiling or having a quiet chuckle.



Performances are at Stirling Community Theatre, 7 Avenue Road, Stirling.

When:

Friday 15th August 7.00pm - Evening performance

**Saturday 16th August 5.00pm - Twilight performance/B]

Sunday 17th August 2.00pm - Finale Matinee performance.

Tickets: will be available from Matilda Bookshop at
8 Mt Barker Road, Stirling, phone 8339 3931, from 21 July 2014.

Prices: adults $15, child/concession $12, family $48 (2 adults, 2 children). A booking fee of $1.50 per ticket
applies.

Hills Youth Theatre is a community based non-profit organisation, which provides quality drama education and performance opportunities to children in the Stirling and surrounding
hills area aged 5 to 18 years.

#adelaide_hills
#aldgate
#comedy
#community_theatre
#eastern_suburbs
#family_attractions
#fun_for_children
#greater_adelaide
#music
#norton_summit
#stirling
#theatre_reviews
#august
!date 15/08/2014 -- 17/08/2014
%wnadelaide
213063 - 2023-06-16 06:51:49

Tags

Free
Outdoor
Festivals
Music
Markets
Nightlife
Family_friendly
Fundraisers
Food_drink
Community
Arts_culture
Random
Educational
Shopping_markets
Theatre_shows
Copyright 2024 OatLabs ABN 18113479226