Neighbourhood Watch

Many residential areas across the country have Neighbourhood Watch Schemes, but I doubt if those who participate in them would have seen anything like the scenes the Orpheus students depicted, to the delight of their audiences at the Orpheus Centre, Godstone on 20-22 July.

Windyford-on-Kale is no ordinary town, though it looks like one. As they say, you never know what goes on behind closed doors. A cluster of Mary Poppins look-alikes are efficiently dusting and cleaning but somehow kill one of their numbers in the Mary Poppins Murder House. A husband is poisoned while at a hotel with his mistress. There’s the Family Diner, a crazy restaurant; there was some very good New York music; astronauts were observed next to a Burger Bar and in another place, The Dark Side of the Moon presented great music; but The Creepy Cottage and Revenge Castle reminded the spectators that this was a somewhat macabre town, with a very dark side.

Every member of the cast and musician played their part wonderfully well, raising laughs as well as oohs and aghs. The costumes were fantastic, the make-up incredible and all the decorations on the various locations will have taken many hours to create and set up. Plus, there will have been such a lot of hard work in the writing, producing and rehearsing for the shows. It was all well worth it, not just for the satisfaction the students hopefully gained from their performances, but because the audience enthusiastically showed their appreciation as they moved between the various “sets” on the premises. After such an imaginative evening there was lots of applause and three cheers rang out for everyone involved in the production when all were gathered under the roof of the new basketball court. Well done everyone at Orpheus for a super show.

The Orpheus Centre is an independent specialist college and charity that focuses on developing independence skills through the arts, making dramatic improvements to the lives of young disabled adults. Neighbourhood Watch yet again demonstrated what can be achieved. The High Sheriff and his wife thank the CEO, Dr Rachel Black, and the Chairman of Trustees, Howard Webber, for their invitation to attend the evening on 21st July and for their kind hospitality