Rent

The Tony Award winning musical Rent, loosely based on Puccini’s La Boheme, seemed the perfect musical for this University group to perform. The cast all seemed to be of relevant age, which in some productions of this can be negative if cast too old. This cast all had the maturity in their stage presence and excelled with the sometimes quite difficult score.

From the moment you enter the foyer of the theatre, you are transported into the world in which our characters live. Posters of one of the main characters - Roger’s - band were on the walls and even the ticket stub was a piece or newspaper with “Ticket” written on it.

This newspaper element continued inside the theatre, where the floor of the Homeless slums was covered in the paper. The other side of the stage was made up of wooden packing pallets and a scaffolding tower. The internal scenes of Rocker “Roger” and his friend/flatmate Mark Cohen’s unit play out on these pallets with a bed and guitar the only real props here. Next door we see a glimpse of neighbour Mimi’s bare unit.  The effective use of the scaffolding tower was utilised in both Mimi’s number “Out Tonight” and Maureen’s performance of “Over The Moon” protest.

There were some superb performances from the compact cast of 15. Mark Cohen, the documentary film maker and the narrator of the show, was played with great physicality by MACMS regular Luke Murphy. Vocally Luke was very strong and his performance in the number “La Vie Boheme”, set in the restaurant, was one of the best I’ve seen; you couldn’t take your eyes off him throughout the scene. Mark’s room-mate and struggling musician, Roger, also dealing being HIV Positive, was played with an abundance of maturity by current AIM student Zach Selmes. Zach looked the part with long blonde hair and played the guitar in some numbers well. A highlight from Zach was his chemistry with his love interest in the piece, Mimi Marquez, given a very entertaining and emotional performance byDanielle Bainbridge. Mimi’s song “Out Tonight” was the standout number of the whole night, with Danielle’s impressive vocals combining with Steph Goodman’s choreography.

Amy Neville and Renae Goodman as Joanne and Maureen, the two women in the Lesbian relationship in the show, had some powerful moments of tension. Vocally Amy Neville shone out of this pair and had a shining moment in the number “Tango: Maureen”.

Renae Goodman’s version of “Over The Moon”, the protest evening performance, was very full on and in your face, but I felt the backup dancers’ comedy movements pulled too much focus from what Maureen was trying to get across.

The characters of Angel and Tom Collins, who meet at the beginning of the show and fall in love pretty much instantly, are here played by Shannan Marino and Ali Kazwini. The mics on both actors were too quiet and it was really quite difficult to here either of them against the other lead roles. Ali Kazwini seemed to warm into the role of Collins and by the end when Angel has passed away, you really felt the characters loss.

The four piece band led by Paul Young sounded terrific throughout, but could have maybe been lowered in volume in some parts. Lighting was used to great effect, changing with characters’ emotions.

Jo Elizabeth Finnis’ direction deserves credit, showing her knowledge of the musical, its times and difficult to portray themes. She has fleshed out some very moving performances and presented a commendable production.

Get out to see this moving engaging production of Rent this weekend.

James Russell