Felicity’s Score: 4.5/5 stars
Coram Boy is a must-see happening right now at Kings Cross Theatre. A visual spectacle, and emotional journey, a performance triumph.
In what could only have been achieved with months of rehearsals and truly collaborative ensemble sessions, Coram Boy is a patchwork of music, tableaus, scenes, and time. Michael Dean and John Harrison, along with Charles Vaux have directed a highly ambitious work that embraces storytelling in all its glory. When you have a stage, a cast, a play, and the undivided attention of an audience… it truly is a gift. This production is not wasteful.
The adaption by Helen Edmuson is a romantic gothic adventure set in England during the Industrial Revolution over three generations of family. With fifteen in the cast, the opportunity for song and shape is seemingly endless – as proved by this show. It’s important in such a small space that movement is melded by a hand of precision, which was my main worry about the show, yet the cast and creatives were able to deal with that requirement strongly. Usually I’d give shout out to stellar performances…but in this case the whole cast should be listed. Rebecca Abdel-Messih, Lloyd Allison-Young, Violette Ayad, Andrew Den, Ryan Hodson, Joshua McElroy, Tinashe Mangwana, Suz Mawer, Emma O’Sullivan, Gideon Payten-Griffiths, Ariadne Sgouros, Annie Stafford, Amanda Stephens-Lee, Petronella Van Tienen, Joshua Wiseman along with Carmen Lysiak as dialect coach and Amy Sole as rehearsal assistant.
I want to talk more about this piece… but am loathed to ruin the magic of the show. Coram Boy is showing at KXT until this Saturday 7th December. If you’ve been yearning for a show that embraces the possibility of a play…look no further than this KXT bAKEHOUSE production.
Felicity Anderson, Theatre Now
22 Nov – 7 Dec
Venue: Kings Cross Theatre [KXT]
Theatre Company: Adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson
from Jamila Gavin’s award winning novel
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes, including interval
Concession $35
General $42
$20 for 20
Preview $20
Tue – Sat 7:30pm
Sun 5pm
By Adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson
from Jamila Gavin’s award winning novel
The silk on your back, the sugar in your tea, all of this – all wealth is built on the suffering of others.
Coram Boy is a tale of two cities – London and Gloucester – and two orphans at the Coram Hospital for Foundling Children: Toby, saved from an African slave ship, and Aaron, the abandoned son of the heir to a great estate. On the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, the wealth of England’s aristocracy is built on slavery and children are its commodities. Born poor, or of the wrong sex, or the wrong skin colour, or with a disability, the world’s unwanted children face a terrible future.
Spanning 3 generations, Jamila Gavin’s best-selling novel is at once a glorious love story and an epic Dickensian thriller. It is a spell-binding, heart-breakingly beautiful tale of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, children lost and found, betrayal and murder. And love. And the redemption that love brings.
Directed by John Harrison & Michael Dean
With Rebecca Abdel-Messih, Lloyd Allison-Young, Violette Ayad, Alex Beauman, Andrew Den, Ryan Hodson, Tinashe Mangwana, Suz Mawer, Emma O’Sullivan, Gideon Payten-Griffiths, Ariadne Sgouros, Annie Stafford, Amanda Stephens-Lee, Petronella Van Tienan, Joshua Wiseman
Production Design Patrick Howe; Lighting Design Benjamin Brockman; Composition & Sound Design Nate Edmondson; Producer Suzanne Millar; Stage Manager Andrew McMartin; Assistant Director Charles Vaux
