Stage Dragon: Young Actors Breathe Life Into New Musical

Published on: 22 Jul, 2024
Updated on: 22 Jul, 2024

By Ferenc Hepp

George. A Dragon. A Legend! is a new musical by the Prologue Youth Theatre Company and was performed at the National Trust River Wey Navigations’ Dapdune Wharf, Guildford, last week (July 18).

It has been written by Ellie Boufath, who also directs, with music and musical direction by David Perkins. There is assistant direction by Julia Black and costume design by Millie Darnell-Hayes, a former Prologue Youth Theatre Company member.

This riverside location provides the perfect setting again for this young company’s production this year, as we are ushered into the town of Silene to take our places and be introduced to the inhabitants with an upbeat opening number, celebrating George’s Day.

The Prologue Youth Theatre’s musical George. Dragon. A Legend! Picture: Lucy Betts.

The age range of the performers spans a decade, starting at around nine years old and going up to 19 years.

With the majority of the older performers not being available due to exam commitments, there are more of the younger ones in this show.

It is clear to see that their experience is at different levels, but the first number helps them to warm up, and they soon get going, each of them successfully immersed into their characters, whether it is a leading role or part of the supporting cast.

Millie’s costumes are colourful and suit this young cast perfectly. Ellie’s writing and direction, assisted by Julia, create a magical tale, told in a clever and entertaining way, with the children clearly enjoying being part of this production. And David’s music offers a good variety of solos, duets and chorus numbers, which are not always straightforward to sing, but each performer gives a perfect interpretation of the score.

The choreographed moves are subtle but effective, captained by Aster Skwarski, who is also a former Prologue member.

The play was performed at the National Trust River Wey Navigations’ Dapdune Wharf, Guildford.

By the time we meet the Emperor, leading the number No More Sheep, the performers are in full flow, and you can clearly see the characters coming through.

Wherever they are positioned on the performing area, they never lose characterisation and they are fully committed throughout.

We are regularly directed by stage management in a promenade performance fashion to move to a different area, distinguishing the number of settings where the action takes place, which is very well organised.

This is a wonderful ensemble piece. However, some individual performances deserve a special mention.

Poppy Donkin as George (not Georgie!) commands the title role with confidence and has a great rapport with the ensemble.

Finn MacLachlan is a very different Dragon to what we would expect, surrounded by a flock of very enthusiastic sheep who made me smile as soon as they appeared.

There is some very skilful puppeteering by Peter Foussat, Zara Karim and Coco Prichard and it is clear that they worked very hard on this.

The relationship between Poppy and Finn is one of the highlights.

The Dragon’s innocence and caring nature is beautifully portrayed by Finn and they have a couple of lovely duets, thanks to David Perkins, which brought tears to my eyes, in a good way!

Max Savage is perfectly horrible and condescending as the Emperor, and Harry Auckland wins the award for the most enthusiastic member of the cast as the Mayor’s PA, who clearly has the best time performing with Prologue.

I hope a lot of these young actors will pursue performing in their later years, as they have a lot of potential.

Prologue Youth Theatre Company provides high-quality workshops to help young people develop performance skills and nurture creativity. The company was formed in August 2020 by a team of theatre professionals with a combined 120 years of youth theatre directing experience.

They believe that engagement in the arts creates a valuable sociable experience that is vital for personal growth and artistry, and they certainly achieved that with this production.

More details can be found on its website: www.prologue.org.uk