Rousing Les Mis performance

YOUNG thespians at King’s school put on a rousing performance of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.

The King’s production boasted a cast of 42 young actors from both the Boys’ and Girls’ Divisions and the Sixth Form, together with an orchestra of 18 players, working hard to perfect the spectacle across the sellout four night run.

Star performers were Henry Reavey playing the humanitarian Jean Valjean; Ben Lynch the repressed Javert and the tragic Fantine played by Ellie McKenna.

At the heart was Cosette played in her younger days by Fiona Beeston and as a woman by Olivia Hamblyn. Her encounters with both the steely eyed Ben Lynch and the heroic, handsome victim of happenstance, Henry Reavey, reached out to every emotion.

As Cosette’s lover Marius, painfully torn between love and revolution, Aarian Mehrabani gave a performance full of commitment and passion, with Madeleine Phillip as Eponine.

Emma Maxwell and Dominic Corner both contributed hilariously and menacingly as Madame and Monsieur Thenardier, and Sam Jones and Oliver Rushton shared the role of Gavroche.

Donald Forbes, producer director, said: “It was an incredibly challenging but rewarding piece with a string of memorable songs and we just felt it was time to seize the day.”

Catherine Thompson, also producer director, added: “We hope the young actors will remember the experience for the rest of their lives. We were auditioning before the summer holidays and were in rehearsals since September.”

King’s director of music, Ian Crawford, who rehearsed and led the orchestra and held the action together with a rousing musical backdrop, added: “It is one of the great shows of our time with an emotionally engaging narrative, some fantastic tunes and some powerfully emotive lyrics which speak of the best and worst in mankind.”