Thank you to Suzanne Hawkes for this guest review – Welcome to Serene is at The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich 31st August 2.30pm & 7.30pm – tickets are available here
Take 45 young people – give them two weeks rehearsal and a brand new musical to work with and what do you get? A vibrant, colourful, quirky take on the serious issues of climate change delivered with energy and pace that looked and felt like a show that had been given months to perfect – that’s what!
British Youth Music Theatre is in its 20th year of working with 11-21 year olds to help them develop their stage craft and creativity
Welcome to Serene is a musical written in 2022 by the Scottish pair of Bethany Tennick & Iona Ramsay – who based the fictional town on North Carolina’s Outer Banks – recently in the news as a house on stilts was swept out into the Atlantic during a storm. But it could just as easily been based on our East Anglian coast.
The plot centres around two strangers – a young girl with her little brother – who turn up in the town looking for a place of refuge only to find themselves trapped by a broken down car and caught up in the local’s fight to save their community from the encroaching sand and coming storms. Many have evacuated the small town but those left have built their houses on stilts and are sitting it out – relying on a man called Smith and his Heath Robinson type Machine to keep them safe.
Tensions increase as a business women arrives and starts manipulating the community to sell her their land in order to build a super resort. And then the Machine is sabotaged. Who is behind that? And can it be fixed before the town is overwhelmed?
With lots of humour and some nice sing a long songs this was a pleasure to watch while taking on the serious message. The youth involved are all extremely talented – the leads belting out the songs, the chorus numbers full on and the rest of the cast making the most of their quirky characters to flesh out the story.
The programme did not assign parts to performers preferring to list the company as a whole – but it should be noted that the girl who played the Tourist Officer/Weather Girl was extremely strong, as was the Young Stranger Beth and the Businesswomen. A nice touch was the baby brother represented as a puppet.
Well directed by Hannah Benson and choreographed by Ash Mukherjee this was entertaining as well as thought provoking.
As a piece of writing there were a few issues with the plot in that the relationships created never really built and petered out at the end, and the storyline was a little thin in places. Some of the characters were really fun and it would have been nice to have seen a bit more of them. And although the music is lively it’s pleasant rather than ground breaking.
Nevertheless the cast gave it 110% – and it would be great if they had a bit more support for their last two performances at The New Wolsey today – ‘so go along and enjoy the sway in Serene’.
Thank you to Suzanne Hawkes for this guest review
Please support local theatre – tickets are available on The New Wolsey Website or call the box office on 01473 295900
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