Downtown

Ah, the pop songs of the sixties. This music was the essence of Downtown and the memories came flashing back. The songs ranged from “London Swings” through “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” and “Georgy Girl” through to                             “Downtown”. As an audience, we follow the close friendships of five women as the decade passes and how their approaches to life change and are reflected in the fast changing music. There was very little dialogue but it was not needed as the message was sent clearly through the songs and the movement.  Besides the five women, there was the editor of the magazine “Shout” to keep us up to date on what year it was, the lady who gave never changing advice to readers who wrote to the magazine and five young dancers to help the flow.

The end result was due to director Jean Bowra with much help in choreography and musical direction. They obviously worked well together to achieve this result on such a big stage. What helped enormously was the three member band of Helen Drew, Sarah Whiting and Adrian Wilson – it was on stage and did not drown out the singers as is often the case.

The five main roles of singers were know by the colour of their clothes -  so even I could remember them. They were Orange Girl - Elissa Holswich, Yellow Girl – Louise Swainston, Blue Girl – Caitlin  Archer,  Red Girl – Georgia Barnard and Green Girl – Patricia Dearness. They sang and interacted well but a little more projection when speaking would help. They were all good. That is not correct – they were very good for the most part with Patricia Dearness topping the bill. Sharyn Donoghue and Reagan Warner completed the singing/speaking roles with good performances. To complete the action were Jasmine Reese, Rebel Bliss, Rebecca Collins, Kara Fisher and Sheree Fitzgerald as the talented dancers.

This was an entertaining production with good singing of the music we remember of the sixties, while making us reflect on the changes that occurred in the world in general and, more importantly, in us.  Well done! It was very enjoyable.

William Davies