Otago Gang Show 2023
Mayfair Theatre
Tuesday, July 4
Mums, dads, grandparents, siblings, friends and probably a fair number of complete strangers packed the Mayfair Theatre on Tuesday night for the opening of the 2023 Otago Gang Show.
Expectation was running high, with good reason.
As well as a venue, the Mayfair provided a theme. In the show, the theatre is running out of money and its former glory fading fast. Just as it’s about to be sold to a dodgy developer for demolition, a new director shows up.
Auditions and rehearsals proceed, often hilariously, but saboteurs are also active. Can the director produce the show that could keep the wrecking ball away, and can he and his chosen performers do it in time?
The 70-strong cast are Scouts and Guides, some primary school aged and others well into their teens. Nobody, as far as I could see, put a foot wrong. Entrances and exits were spot on, scene and costume changes snappy, co-ordination and timing good and a cracking pace maintained.
Importantly, everyone looked as though they were having a great time, and this was reciprocated by the audience.
Among my favourite scenes were Oliver! and Camelot-themed sequences, and a Shakespearean mash-up in which Romeo failed in various entertaining ways to ascend to Juliet’s decreasingly eager arms.
The commitment needed for a show of this kind is massive, and co-directors Noel and Sue Walker have done a tremendous job. Costumes, managed by Dawn New and Kath Moran, were colourful and uncountable. Choreography, by Olivia Larkins and Mhairi Rowbottom, stayed within the limits of the possible and was varied and slick.
They, the cast and dozens of volunteers who supported the show with their time and expertise are to be congratulated.
All in all, exuberant, old-fashioned (and all the better for it) and fun. The season ends on Saturday.
Review by Barbara Frame
