After last year’s brilliant laid back fun Arabian Nights last year, I was excited to see what the talent of IH had to offer me in a more challenging and thought provoking content.
It pleases me then to report that IH is capable of smashing serious drama and tough character performances out of the park! Perhaps this is encapsulated most by Jordi’s exceptional portrayal of a passive-aggressive, overbearing Nurse Ratched. For anyone who saw Jordi’s brilliantly cute portrayal of a lion last year, her Nurse Ratched was a stark, yet pleasing juxtaposition. Note must also be made of Zak’s Zakifying of Randle McMurphy and the cast’s ablility to play off his improvisations with aplomb. Thursday night’s crowd may not have gotten all of the in-jokes but we in the peanut gallery were certainly in stitches! Special mentions also to Chris’s brilliant doubling up of characters. His practice of “dragging ass” away from Caitlin and her hat stealing ways have come in handy. For us in the peanut gallery it was the highlight of the night. In saying that though, Mr Jonathon Evans’ classy performance as Dale Harding cannot be overstated. Should Andrew Scott ever give up the role of Moriarty in Sherlock, Jon would own the role like no other.
Without wanting to make this a curtain call of praise, credit should also be given to Jeshantaran who, like Big Chief, really grew into his role and delivered a performance worthy of that wonderful hair. Shout out to Cindy also who was on her death bed Wednesday night but pulled through to deliver a performance with the energy and excitement we’ve come to expect from her! Oh and how can we forget Ollie’s inspired turn as Martini and Darcy’s unleashing of his inner child as Cheswick.
That’s not forgetting Khaya’s incredibly innocent foray into acting as Billy Babbit or Saliesh’s creepy plot to blow the theatre from here to Timbuktu or Yume and Vesna bringing the party to the stage in fabulous performances as Zak’s ladies of choice. Finally special mention to Morgan, Monica and Gino for brining innocence, aggression and reluctance respectively to the stage with their performances. In particular it should be warned that one should not approach a banana wielding Monica in a dark alley without gun.
Special thanks to the entire production team for their efforts, in particular Emma for getting this off the ground, Sanjana and her assistant Bri for their direction and Alex for organising all the behind the scenes work. Anyone that I may have missed along the way of this report I’m sorry but your efforts are much appreciated for the show would not have reached such heights without you.
The IH Play may be over for another year but if the past four days have shown us anything it is that the talent in IH is capable and ready to rise to the challenge. Next year’s should be even bigger and better and I certainly look forward to it.
Once again IH has proven itself to be full of hidden gems!
