Mary Poppins - 4.5 out of 5 stars
Trinity College Gawler
TICKETS: https://events.humanitix.com/mary-poppins-trinity-college-musical-2026/tickets
The amazing Marnkutyi Parirna Theatre on the campus of Trinity College in Gawler could easily be used by professionals, so wonderful are the facilities, stage space and technical facilities. It is in the confines of this magnificent venue that the classic musical “Mary Poppins” gets a brilliant staging by the students at Trinity College, showcasing their incredible arts program and the talent it helps foster.
The 2004 adaptation of the hit Disney movie
has long been a favourite of community and school groups and for obvious
reasons. It allows for wonderful characters and magnificent set pieces for the
ensemble while delivering a heartfelt and genuine story about the importance of
family. Too often, productions rely on stage tricks to wow the audiences, but
director Kristy Triantafilakis has, very wisely, kept these to a minimum and
allowed the characters and the story be the wow factor instead. And when your
cast and crew are this talented, it is an easy job to do.
I cannot stress enough how enormously
talented everybody on stage was and the commitment to their roles was nothing
short of exceptional. This is not only a credit to the director (who also
served as music director for the cast) but for choreographer Caley Milhench who
has drilled not only her team of core dancers to perfection but also worked the
remaining cast tightly creating some dazzling ensemble numbers. The big
production numbers such as “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “Let’s Go Fly
A Kite”, and especially “Step In Time” were flawlessly executed. Not only did
the cast dance up a storm but their harmonies and vocals were strong and
confident.
Eliana Grigolas, as the titular Mary
Poppins, is a star to keep an eye on. Blessed with a wonderful voice of
considerable range and some slick dancing moves, she graces the stage with prim
and proper presence throughout providing the emotional core of this challenging
work. She also manages to keep up her vocal energy after nearly three hours on
stage which is no small feat.
Josh Roberts brings a feisty, cockney heart
to Bert and he serves his role as narrator to the audience and as a character
in the show superbly. Like Grigolas, his vocals and dance moves are top notch.
The Banks family are well represented. Alex
Carpenter makes the most as a gangly, bowler-hatted Mr Banks and showcases a
strong acting presence and understanding of the important journey his character
goes on. His interactions with both Poppins and the rest of his family were
well thought out and executed.
Miah Forsyth as Mrs Banks has a sweet voice
and excellent stage presence while Kaelin Marett-Guest and Archer Thomas as
Jane and Michael Banks respectively threaten to steal the show from the
“adults”. They work well together and both have fabulous vocals and dance moves
to boot. Thomas, especially, has a great sense of comedy that will only develop
as he matures.
Rounding out the Banks household is Willow
Shaw as Mrs Brill and Owen Fagan as Robertson Ay. Fagan does the best pratfalls
and comic shtick and makes the most out of every second he is on stage.
The character cameos from other cast
members were also stunning. Chiara Puccini indulges her Brimstone and Treacle
in the tasty role of the evil Miss Andrew, while Alexi Samonte as Mrs. Corry
looks like she has stepped straight out of the musical “Six” (with the vocal
and acting ability to be in that show too). Special mention must go to the
sweet rendition of “Feed The Birds” sung by Emily George. Beautiful and
heartbreaking at the same time, you truly felt the lyrics when this number was
sung.
Dance Captain Alyssa Nicolai has an
excellent cameo as the statue of Neleus and kudos to her and the other dancers
who had to be statues for a considerable time onstage and pulled it off
brilliantly. The ensemble of toys was another well-choreographed and sung
section. Praise to Noah Lewcock, Issy Bhatt, Emily Fountain, Poppy Saleeba and
Helena Sheridan for bringing this sequence to light.
Of course, the show is helped by Wendy
Todd’s functional and delightful set that plays into the kite element of the
story effectively. Sets are moved around quickly and there was very little
“dead air” showing how well drilled the backstage crew and cast were.
Emma Knights blesses this production with
her tight ensemble consisting of local musicians and some of the Trinity
Instrumental students. For the most part, they played tightly, in tune, and
with flair a character to bring out the full colour of the score. Bravo to
Trinity for choosing live music over prerecorded backing tracks.
While some lighting cues weren’t entirely
accurate and there were occasional issues with balance and volume from the
sound, these were relatively minor and the enthusiastic response from the
audience was well deserved.
The beautiful thing about school musicals
is they create many wonderful memories that will be treasured for a lifetime.
Seeing the joy and enthusiasm of this young and talented group of performers
gives this reviewer much hope for the future of musical theatre in Adelaide and
beyond, and I can only hope that all these youngsters will continue to pursue
theatrical dreams, however hard they might seem to achieve.
Trinity has many productions across its campuses,
and I look forward to seeing more of them in the future. Enjoy the well-deserved
applause, boys and girls, “Mary Poppins” was practically perfect in every
possibly way.
- Rodeny Hrvatin
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