24 February 2014

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

ACT One Beginners’ production of Our House was the perfect vehicle to showcase the drama school’s talented company of young performers.

With music and lyrics by Madness and based on a book by playwright Tim Firth, the show features the band’s many hits woven into a story of love, family values, and the choices life can throw at people as they grow up and make their way in the world.

With echoes of Blood Brothers, and Sliding Doors, it explores the consequences of a single night when Camden lad Joe Casey decides to impress his girlfriend Sarah by breaking into a building development overlooking his home on Casey Street.

Things take a turn for the worse when the police show up – but as the show unfolds we see two versions of what happened that night.

In one, Joe stays and faces the consequences, which include a stay in a detention centre, his social exclusion on release and the difficulties of getting a job.

In the second he escapes and embarks on a successful career based on dodgy deals and quick fixes which eventually ends in tragedy.

Lead Jack Marshall perfectly captured his many-faceted role Joe as he veered between swaggering Jack-the-lad self-confidence, and despair as his life went off the rails.

With a fine voice, Jack made intelligent work of the often witty Madness lyrics – which were good to hear afresh divorced from their original pop videos –  and his sheer likeability kept the audience rooting for him even when things looked blackest.

Kristina Hewitt was a winning Sarah who brought real integrity to her role as Joe’s serious-minded girlfriend determined to rise above her humble background, and their duet It Must Be Love was one of the show’s many highlights.

Another was Hannah Collins who played Joe’s mum Kath with warmth, maturity and a voice which captured all the heartbreak of a woman struggling against the odds to make the best of a life gone sour.

At just 19, Tim Hewitt was the ‘old man’ of the  production having been invited back specially to play the role of Dad, convincingly haunting the plot and drawing its diverse threads together as he watched Joe make his choices in life.

Matthew Harvey and Bruce Herbelin-Earle as Joe’s mates Lewis and Emmo, and Victoria Hawkins and Holly Thayre as Sarah’s besties Billie and Angie injected much-needed comic relief into the often dark themes of the musical, and played their support roles with some deft and neatly-observed touches which earned them well-deserved laughs.

While John Bennett was impressively seedy as the feral bad-boy Reecey.

Special words of praise are also due to the well-drilled company who swapped between the chorus and a myriad of minor roles at a dizzying pace throughout this hugely enjoyable production – and to the dads who manhandled the car and played a couple of very convincing heavies.

It is a tribute to the enthusiasm of the school and its many supporters that they were able to put together a show like this in just six weeks.

But they pulled it off with impressive aplomb.

And they did themselves – and Suggs – proud.