Our House

The last chord faded and the applause finally died away and so our show for autumn 2016, 'Our House', came to an end. The enthusiastic Opening Night audience had earlier greeted us with appreciative applause right from the off and the cast really rose to the occasion to deliver a sparkling performance. Amazingly, if anything we then went one better at our Society Night on Wednesday when civic guests and colleagues from other local societies were invited to see the show - and all the indications were that they really did! The standard was fully maintained, if not exceeded, during the rest of the week and so we moved into Last Night on a real high. Ticket sales were incredibly good, with full houses on both Friday and Saturday, so if you didn't get one you'll have to move faster next time! Although the show is driven along by the music of the 1980's pop-group Madness, it is so much more than a "juke-box" musical. Suffice it to say that it has an intriguing plot with solid principal roles, catchy songs, plenty of lively choreography and lots of involvement for the ensemble from begining to end. The Preview Evening for 'Our House', on Monday 9th May, gave the production team of Jane Zarins (Stage Director), Helen Roscoe (co-Director), Helen Watson (Musical Director) and Jean Cator (Choreographer) the opportunity to explain the somewhat labyrinthine plot. Those who didn't quite get the Good Joe / Bad Joe thing entirely clear then had the chance to sort it out for themselves at the Read-Through on Wednesday 11th. There were then a couple of audition rehearsals / chorus workshops on 16th & 18th May, preparing for the Principals' Auditions in Beccles Public Hall on 23rd & 25th. These, as is usually the case, gave the Panel a lot to think about, as the "performances" given by the candidates were just so good.