Hannah Williams reviews the recent QMC production of Evita

This was the eleventh big musical that has been produced by the Performing Arts Dept in recent years and I have been privileged to see all of them.

The first was Oh! What A Lovely War which took place at Central Studio – the fine small theatre on the QMC campus. I knew then that I was seeing the start of something special.

Professional actress and QMC tutor Anne Higgins has been the director of all these musicals, as well as many other productions at the college.

She readily acknowledges that these major productions would not be possible without the cooperation of many other departments – especially the music dept.

Ali Willis was the musical director and she had assembled 18 terrific musicians which she led from the keyboard. The orchestra tackled some really difficult music but, how these young people revelled in it, especially percussionist Gavin Stamp and drummer John Hack who played with remarkable precision and maturity.

Rarely have I come across a student production where the diction has been so good; I could hear every word so clearly and my attention did not waver for a second.

The vocal coaches had worked wonders with the singing and, in order to give every student as much experience as possible, there were nine students sharing the part of Che!

Owen Stevens opened the show with Oh! What a Circus followed by On this Night of a Thousand Stars and his rich, baritone voice and acting ability set the bar high from the very beginning. 

All the boys sang well. Ollie Franklin changed from his chest voice to his head voice with such ease and Sam Alexander who played Peron showed great potential. There is no doubt they had been well trained.

Requiem 

There are some amazing songs in this musical including Don’t Cry for Me Argentina and my particular favourite High Flying Adored. 

Two students played the part of Eva Peron – Mica Bernard and Kate Pink - and I heard Mica on the night I was there. 

She was on the stage for most of the time – a very demanding part for such a young actress - and when she sang Don’t Cry For Me Argentina for the final time with just a spotlight on her face in a darkened theatre, all the pathos and passion were there.

I feel sure there will be some of the students on stage who will wish to pursue an acting or stage-management career but the educational benefits of working under pressure on a production such as this are not be underestimated.

There is obviously not a huge budget available for these shows but there was a very ‘West End’ look about the lighting design which camouflaged the fact that we were in a school hall. I was disappointed that there was no tiered seating this year.  

The costumes were a fair representation of the period without being lavish, yet the production values and standard of performance were high – including the smallest cameo role of Peron’s mistress played by Ella Kairns-Glover, whose performance was truthful and emotional.

I doubt if there are many 6th form colleges in the country that can claim to have produced so many West End musicals every year, for the last eleven years and achieved such a consistently high standard.

Basingstoke is rightly proud of its 6th Form college.