A Night with the Addams

8 MARCH, 2024

One Night with the wonderful Addams Family: creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky and altogether ooky! 
 
From the moment that we sat down and admired the set design, inspired by the sharp angles, distorted perspectives and shadows in a monochrome setting of a Film Noir, we were immersed in a Gothic delight of soaring, sweeping, ghoulish spectacle: The Addams Family musical.  

The eerie mansion house set extended all the way around the hall’s pillars; the extended stage thrust into the hall, not only allowing a massive cast of pupils from all Year Groups but also enabling the audience to truly feel part of the show; we were impressed immediately. The set, designed by Mrs Helen de Mattos and Mr Ciaran Bradley, was built by TSP Productions’ Michael Mackie-Clark and received a very well-deserved round of applause for its excellence. It was a visual treat for this iconic musical comedy. 
 
Director Helen de Mattos’ vision extended also to the incredible lighting which was masterfully designed by Bethan and Emma and controlled on the nights by a fabulous team comprising Mr Alan Rees, Eliza, Aeden, Jessica and Isla. 
 
The enormous cast formed part of the exciting mystery with each character dressed in exquisite costumes, encapsulating a convention of horror – the corpse bride, a mad scientist, a soldier, a cowboy, a witch, a gambler and all manner of other characters fantastically presented as they sprang from the Addams’ crypt. The costumes were the genius of Ms Cathrin Woods and Mrs Jumana Farouky, with ghoulish make-up and wild hair all managed by Mrs Zoe Ireland, who was brilliantly assisted by many pupils who wanted to be part of this wonderful production. There were many fiends on which to cast our eyes with trepidation alongside the Addams family, including the excellent Itt Addams (Imogen), and the most fiendish and menacing of all, Lurch (Olivia), who had the infamous Thing balanced on his shoulder throughout.  
 
Properties and structures created by the DART Department, aided by Emily, were ably managed too under the professional precision of Mrs Ludivine Fitzwater. Many backstage crew carefully placed curious and tantalising additions, such as the rat that ran across the stage, and the superb dining table around which the two families sat for the infamous dinner party and where the revelations made in the game of ‘Full Disclosure’ were sung in high octave. 
 
While all the machinations took place on stage, we saw the orchestra seated above in a beautifully constructed balcony overlooking the action. The dual visual of musical performers and actors epitomised this production in which music and drama intertwined seamlessly. It had been Director of Music, Joe Adams (no relation, he insisted!) suggestion to stage this show and his mastery of orchestral arrangement and perfecting of the cast’s vocals wove incredibly with the dramatisation directed by Helen de Mattos and Assistant Director, Erik Anders. The team worked together to bring hilarious horror that also espoused several important messages about life. There was the emphasis of looking with an open-mind at other people’s points-of-view while accepting each other in life and learning from each other, all conveyed in two hours of sheer fun and entertainment! 
 

The story of The Addams Family musical revolved around a straight-laced family, the Beinekes, whose son, Lucas (the excellent Tegan), falls deeply in love with Wednesday Addams (played remarkably well by Emma). She, coming from the spooky, weird family whose pleasure lay in all things wicked, was the antithesis of the hard-working, squeaky-clean expectations and social standing of Lucas’ family. Wednesday was a risk-taker and wandered around with a crossbow, casually targeting creatures who became her fatal victims. One of the key moments in the musical was when Lucas, to prove after a quarrel with Wednesday that he could be as tough and daring as she, begged her to aim, blind-folded, at an apple on his head: this was imaginatively enacted by the cast as they carried the arrow along its path between them until it hit its target. It was a turning point in the story - she was convinced of his love and he of hers - and from then, the two were inseparable.  
 
Unfortunately, Morticia, played unforgettably by Shehrezad, resented her daughter finding love, especially with the son of a wholesome family. Mrs Alice Beineke, supremely played by Brooke, was resplendent in a golden yellow dress which contrasted with the gothic Morticia and made her visibly cringe, especially when, aiming to impress her sparkly future mother-in-law, Wednesday matched the hue of Alice’s sunshine attire in her own outfit. The presence of double yellow dresses, jarred with the eerie monochrome set and caused much laughter. Other visual gags accompanied the music and acting all the way through the production.  Even when the actors were producing amazing solos, there was always a sense of fun. 
 
Indeed, Emma's perfectly soaring notes combined with perfect comic timing to bring out the perplexity Wednesday experienced in being attracted to someone whose culture and conventions did not match her own family’s dastardly values. Likewise, Lucas’ father, Mal Beineke, acted most convincingly by Megan, wanted to leave the gruesome and peculiar Addams’ dinner party. Wednesday - who was determined to be ‘normal’ for once by having a dinner with her hoped-for parents-in-laws - was thwarted in her aspiration as Morticia insisted on their family game of ‘Full Disclosure’ that lead to home-truths tumbling forth. Uncomfortable realisations about the Beineke family relationships were revealed. Ironically, in spite of being wicked, it was the Addams family who lived with truth, while the Beineke family preferred to brush truth under the carpet! The whole game was made all the more amusing and intense as little brother, Pugsley, had stolen Grandmother’s potion that could bring out an unloving character, all so that his sister, Wednesday, would continue to be wicked. When the sweet and conventional Alice Beineke drank it, out tumbled her real resentments. Of course, it was all done with much hilarity and Liduo, as Pugsley Addams, stole the show on several occasions with her portrayal of the impish brother. Her vocals swept the highest chords, and her comic timing brought the house down whilst also highlighting the juxtaposition of mismatched conventions, such as wanting the monster hiding in the cupboard when going to bed at night and cuddling up to a giant furry spider. Pugsley’s interactions with the Grandmother Addams allowed Annabelle, as Grandma Addams, to add much mirth too; the character was amazingly played by her.  

There were many in-jokes and pointed puns or asides to keep the audience on their toes, figuratively speaking, while brilliant choreography by Eleanor Bowyer, Sian Turner and Dance Captain Sophie, kept the cast on theirs, literally. This was a show with a dance feast in it too: ballet, ballroom and tap all permeated the drama, and there were musical ensemble dances that would not have looked out of place in a fifty’s musical. At one point, when Uncle Fester danced around, enraptured with his love for the moon, umbrellas, alight with fairy lights, and poles with twinkly lights, cascaded in a routine in which Fred Astaire would not have looked out of place. Lucy played Uncle Fester with indisputable charm, acting out his hilarious, bizarre love affair with the moon, squeezing all the usual romance directed customarily at a person. When he eventually left us to go off to the moon, he made us think that, after all, we are often “over the moon” or “wanting to go to the moon and back” when we are in love! Lucy was bewitching with clever timing and the ability to seem serious, as well as tongue-in-cheek, utilising the whole stage in a most physical performance while projecting powerful yearning in her vocals.  

In the creation of Morticia, Shehrezad brought out the tenderer, sensual side that Morticia chose to conceal, when singing her tango and dancing with her husband, Gomez Addams. We know Shehrezad to have a powerful and lovely voice and we were certainly not disappointed. Who else could make a song about death, ‘Just around the corner’, so captivating?! 

The part of Gomez Addams is hugely taxing, being on stage for most of the time as the ringmaster of the story. Keeping the family together and allowing his precious daughter to wed her true love is no mean feat for the father of this group of misfits when his wife, to whom he is also devoted, is so opposed. The acting of Alyssa was breath-takingly wonderful. Not only did Alyssa inject within it, by turns, the most subtle or blatant humour to tease us, but these moments were combined with visual responses that conveyed a whole host of feelings, from being deliberately awkward or sublimely amusing in idiosyncratic mannerisms - all executed with perfection. The part of Gomez was enacted furthermore with a physicality that ranged from those gestures that were gently dexterous, to the powerful agility of a matador. The range of versatility we saw was tremendous and matched by a vocalisation of the character that caught just the right inference and accent to be scintillating; we were captivated in every scene. Morticia and Gomez were the perfect foil to each other, and we knew they would end stronger in their marriage; but so too would the marriage of Alice and Mal by the end, as well as the finale wedding of Lucas and Wednesday.  

All the characters, in their unconventional yet endearing relationships, end finally in unity, celebrating the marriage of Wednesday Addams to Lucas Beineke. Comedies, by convention, do end in happiness but, in this eerie tale, there was also the realisation that differences between people can lead to self-awareness; that acceptance of others can enrich our lives too and that unity found in difference can lead to harmony for all. It was a wonderful way to convey such lessons, we laughed until our sides split, no doubt that too would have pleased the Addams’ family! 

Mrs Lori Winch-Johnson, Teacher of English