by
Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. Directed by Dale
Rheynolds. Queanbeyan Players. The Q. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. May 22
- June 6.
Queanbeyan Players have
come up with an understated yet feeling production of Les Miserables. A packed
house on opening night stayed absorbed through a long show that rightly
focussed on telling the story.
Sent to the galleys for
a crime of poverty Jean Valjean ( Dave Smith) is released but parole means he
remains under the watchful eye of the law. The ongoing cruelty of this is
focused in the character of the relentless Javert (Max Gambale) who will not give
up on his pursuit.
 |
| Dave Smith (Jean Valjean) |
How Valjean redeems himself over the years and rescues Cosette (Sophie Hope-White), the daughter of the unfortunate Fantine (Jess Waterhouse), with Javert always in relentless pursuit, is the basis of the tale. Add mid C19 social unrest in Paris with students taking to the barricades with the citizens and there is a powerful and heady mixture.
The show never lets the
audience off the hook. There are convincing performances and singing all round,
from the thunder of Gambale’s unrelenting Javert to the gentler feeling of
Smith’s focussed and moral (and well sung) Valjean.
Waterhouse makes
something deeply spirited of the much mistreated Fantine, mother of Cosette,
and does a fine job with I Dreamed a Dream.
Playing the young
Cosette on opening night was a very confident and strong voiced Matilda
Hutchinson who owned Castle on a Cloud. And as the chirpy street kid Gavroche,
Harlan Blazeski filled the role with focussed energy and cheek, taking no
nonsense from students like the charismatic Enjolras (William Allington).
 |
| William Allington (Enjolras) |
(On other nights it may
be Georgia Ginges or Hannah O’Keefe as Cosette and Ricky Best or Dude Gambale
as Gavroche)
The amoral energies of
the Thenardiers (Greg Sollis and Tina Robinson) who are exploiting the young
Cosette until unmasked by Valjean, are done with relish by Greg Sollis and Tina
Robinson.
Their daughter Eponine
(India Cornwell) develops a different moral fibre as she grows up. On My Own is
given feeling rendition by Cornwell as Eponine realises that student Marius
loves Cosette, not her.
 |
| Sophie Hope-White (Cosette) and Alexander Unikowski (Marius) |
As the older Cosette Hope-White is a warm and believable daughter to Valjean, well partnered by Alexander Unikowski as Marius. He has a lively stalwart presence and singing voice, particularly moving when he recalls his dead student comrades in Empty Chairs at Empty Tables as their spirits stand holding lit candles.
That last is a lovely
effect and the show indeed benefits from a certain simplicity in the
settings. This enables a largely unseen
backstage army to keep the scenes moving in a long and complex piece. The old
follow spot operator in me might want to bring the light levels up a tad on
faces in solo numbers. But at least the orchestra can be in a pit of sorts at
the Q rather than hidden away behind the scenery. This is a visually tight show
relying on great team work.
And it’s also got the
virtue of asking a little more of the audience in its treatment of social
justice. A fine evening of music and song but also a story to make one think.
Alana Maclean
