Hello again, it is I Brittany, ex-Sapphire member now living
the student life in Birmingham.
Although I may have left the wonderful Yew Tree over 18 months ago now I
never truly left it behind, especially since my own brother is still a part of
the family, and I try to keep up to date with everything YTYT anywhere I
go. This then
led me to skipping a lecture and boarding a train from New Street to Wakefield
all in the name of Festive Fairytales on Thursday, single-handedly one of the
best decisions I have made in a while.
Because they were incredible. I have never been in the audience for a
full night of performances (having been in a play up until 2013 and then only
being able to attend Sapphire dress rehearsals in 2014) so this night was a
first for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Firstly we had the joy of Orange Company with ‘One Foggy Christmas Eve’ which told the story of Rudolph and his saving of Christmas, a hilarious story made even better by the comic timing which can only come from younger children. It was lovely to see these children (some as young as 6!!!) standing on such a big stage with such confidence, I can see them going far in years to come! I’m a sucker for a bit of Christmas spirit and this was chock full of it.
It then became time for my (incredibly biased) favourite show of the night: Sapphire with their classic ridiculous take on a fairy-tale, with Princess and the Frog being the choice for this year. It was so nice to see those who had been in Sapphire with me mixed with so many new faces, and I thought every performance was stellar, you could tell everyone loved being there and had worked hard to get it to performance standard. I think my favourite part was the narrators (big shout out to browski Jacob who played Chuck, I have never been prouder and laughed so hard at him in a none-cruel way before) but the whole performance left me incredibly proud to have once been a part of that little bunch on a Monday evening. And of course I couldn’t tell you the wonders of Sapphire without mentioning the Frog: a puppet. It was delightful to see the puppetry in action, it must have been so hard for those working him but it worked so fantastically, and FYI my dad was very impressed so you hit the jackpot there!
Black came next with their performance on Red Riding Hood, a physical theatre piece I thought was absolutely beautiful. I’ll admit I’ve never been the biggest fan of physical theatre (probably more to do with performing rather than watching it) but this was my first real viewing of a full physical theatre piece, and it’s clear I’ve been missing out. Everything worked together so perfectly and I was basically mesmerised throughout, you could tell how hard Black Company work for everything they do, kudos.
After the interval came Crimson with ‘Calendar’, a piece about how much can change in a year, both poignant and hilarious. I really enjoyed this piece, it really made me think about the year just gone and the changes I’ve seen, and impacting on the audience’s life is a key aspect of theatre so congrats! The live music aspect was really great too, and I loved the staging: it was different to most other performances I’ve seen and it was a welcome change.
Finally we had the joys of Gold with ‘The Snow Queen’, once again a wonderful piece by really great actors. There was a good mix of physical theatre and action, and the story itself was strangely heart-warming for a play about an ice queen (although obviously the power of friendship can overcome anything), I adored it.
After re-reading all of that I think I need to quickly apologise for its length, I just couldn’t not talk about them each individually because they were all so good in their own ways. A massive well done is due not only for all the actors who gave their all, but also to the wonderful Sarah and Gemma who bring these plays from their beginnings to the beauty on stage as well as everyone behind the scenes who so such amazing work to make sure everything runs smoothly: you’re all fabby.
Now just one more point I promise. This first experience of audience life was really fantastic, made even better by the fact I was once again surrounded by Yew Tree-ers. The moment I sat in my seat I was welcomed back with a long reaching arm and it was like nothing had changed, I was back amongst Yew Tree and it was fantastic: I even ended up abandoning my family after the interval and sitting with my fellow leaver Gee and the cast who had already performed. So, to really really paraphrase Frank Turner and sum up the joy I find in YTYT: ‘The place where you grew up and where you found your firmest friends…I'm a Yew Tree girl and when I'm here I'm home’.
Thank you for an incredible night Yew Tree xxxxxxxxxx
Firstly we had the joy of Orange Company with ‘One Foggy Christmas Eve’ which told the story of Rudolph and his saving of Christmas, a hilarious story made even better by the comic timing which can only come from younger children. It was lovely to see these children (some as young as 6!!!) standing on such a big stage with such confidence, I can see them going far in years to come! I’m a sucker for a bit of Christmas spirit and this was chock full of it.
It then became time for my (incredibly biased) favourite show of the night: Sapphire with their classic ridiculous take on a fairy-tale, with Princess and the Frog being the choice for this year. It was so nice to see those who had been in Sapphire with me mixed with so many new faces, and I thought every performance was stellar, you could tell everyone loved being there and had worked hard to get it to performance standard. I think my favourite part was the narrators (big shout out to browski Jacob who played Chuck, I have never been prouder and laughed so hard at him in a none-cruel way before) but the whole performance left me incredibly proud to have once been a part of that little bunch on a Monday evening. And of course I couldn’t tell you the wonders of Sapphire without mentioning the Frog: a puppet. It was delightful to see the puppetry in action, it must have been so hard for those working him but it worked so fantastically, and FYI my dad was very impressed so you hit the jackpot there!
Black came next with their performance on Red Riding Hood, a physical theatre piece I thought was absolutely beautiful. I’ll admit I’ve never been the biggest fan of physical theatre (probably more to do with performing rather than watching it) but this was my first real viewing of a full physical theatre piece, and it’s clear I’ve been missing out. Everything worked together so perfectly and I was basically mesmerised throughout, you could tell how hard Black Company work for everything they do, kudos.
After the interval came Crimson with ‘Calendar’, a piece about how much can change in a year, both poignant and hilarious. I really enjoyed this piece, it really made me think about the year just gone and the changes I’ve seen, and impacting on the audience’s life is a key aspect of theatre so congrats! The live music aspect was really great too, and I loved the staging: it was different to most other performances I’ve seen and it was a welcome change.
Finally we had the joys of Gold with ‘The Snow Queen’, once again a wonderful piece by really great actors. There was a good mix of physical theatre and action, and the story itself was strangely heart-warming for a play about an ice queen (although obviously the power of friendship can overcome anything), I adored it.
After re-reading all of that I think I need to quickly apologise for its length, I just couldn’t not talk about them each individually because they were all so good in their own ways. A massive well done is due not only for all the actors who gave their all, but also to the wonderful Sarah and Gemma who bring these plays from their beginnings to the beauty on stage as well as everyone behind the scenes who so such amazing work to make sure everything runs smoothly: you’re all fabby.
Now just one more point I promise. This first experience of audience life was really fantastic, made even better by the fact I was once again surrounded by Yew Tree-ers. The moment I sat in my seat I was welcomed back with a long reaching arm and it was like nothing had changed, I was back amongst Yew Tree and it was fantastic: I even ended up abandoning my family after the interval and sitting with my fellow leaver Gee and the cast who had already performed. So, to really really paraphrase Frank Turner and sum up the joy I find in YTYT: ‘The place where you grew up and where you found your firmest friends…I'm a Yew Tree girl and when I'm here I'm home’.
Thank you for an incredible night Yew Tree xxxxxxxxxx
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