A Review of St Hilda Drama Society’s Twisted

As Christmas (or Oxmas) rolls around there are certain things that begin to appear in Britain: festoons of decorative foliage, stormy weather and, of course, panto. While Starkid’s Twisted is arguably a musical rather than a pantomime, there was an undeniable sense that this show was an end of term bundle of fun. As a significant amount of OUDS became snowed under by an upcoming Final deadline, St Hilda’s college became the site of comic relief. All I knew walking in was that the story was that of Aladdin from Jafar’s point of view, but this feels like only half a description. This was a show with so much humour threaded through it and such a different take that it barely felt like the same story at all.

This was now the story of young and hopeful Ja’far (played by Iona Blair) whose optimism was lost and regained throughout the course of the play. The decision was made to change the gender of the protagonist, turning the story into a lesbian romance – albeit one that was a little lost due to the almost entirely female cast who were multi-rolling their way through a range of characters (with impressively quick costume changes in places I must say). During the time of the classic Aladdin story, Ja’far has lost her path and is struggling to navigate the interactions of Clara Heck’s naïve Jasmine and womaniser Aladdin (played by Aimee Dixson). The altercations that make up the majority of the musical are laced with humour and a good sprinkle of chaos. Iconic amongst the many characters appearing upon the stage was undoubtedly Lorna Campbell’s film quoting Djinn. It is undeniable that the actor had fun casting ‘Magic! Magic! Magic!’ and generally winding up those who asked questions through riddling quotes. These quotes had been updated for a modern audience, with the odd Oxford joke also being sprinkled through the characters’ lines. The solution to an aging script was not the only one to be overcome, a massive monkey teddy becoming a member of the cast as one of the two animal puppets (the other being a parrot) and projections being used instead of extensive set.

I am sure there are many people far more familiar with Starkid than I am so I will not dwell overly on the plot and move on to the sheer chaos of jokes, Oxford references, scripted humour, dance, music and some fairly wacky costumes… It was a pleasure to see a band upon such a small stage, their performance being masterfully directed by Iris Burlacu. The music and vocals was fairly well matched on the whole, the majority of the songs being heard over their backing counterparts. Of course there will always been room for improvement. When it comes to live music, actors will always face the need to compete. Despite radio mics, there were times where individual mics were simply not amplifying enough. This was not a continuous problem, however, and the actors’ excellent voices could be clearly heard. As live music and talented singers were clearly not enough, there was the added element of choreography during musical numbers all of which seemed well rehearsed and performed. In fact, the awareness of the space had clearly been taken into account throughout, the actors finding clever ways to reach the stage when coming down the isle. Equally, Aladdin’s time within the cave was depicted on the same levels as the audience, which suggested that the directors had considered the space. Unfortunately this did mean that there were audience members who could not see the action taking place.

This was a show that was well aware of its own drama and humour, the directors having lent into it and the actors throwing themselves into the roles. The biggest asset was exactly that, that the musical did not take itself too seriously. Thus, it was a fun night out that elicited plenty of laughter from the audience. There were moments where the lights were out of place or the mics failed to provide enough projection, but that’s the way things go sometimes.