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"Honk" a Year 8 production by Woodbridge School pupils

HONK

I thought it was an absolute hoot, more than a honk (the show, I mean).  Delightful farmyard capers (or should that be capons?) from start to finish.  Tough music, though: it would have tested professionals.  But our cast just hitched up their trousers (braces and all) and went for the notes with gusto.  The tunes burst through; the story swung along; the tragedy unfolded.  Thank goodness for the equivalent of Shakespeare's rude mechanicals in the vignettes of journalism and pre-war aviation to preserve the audience from wailing despair as poor Ugly fled the nest and embarked on the wild goose chase.  And thank goodness for that sexy Bullfrog to give Ugly a sense of perspective (one might say 'reflection').  Thank goodness, too, that that Cat didn't get his way (nor his Queenie), and that Ida and Drake, protected from his unwanted advances by the strength of numbers 'at home' (hens, fish, froglets, geese, ducks, more ducks and Posh Ducks) were on hand to welcome the Swans at the end. 

So in the end it was congratulations one and all - to Ugly for finding him/herself at the end to be handsome (and for a wonderfully sustained performance throughout), to Ida in particular for her quite outstanding singing, to the comedians, the chorus, the fliers and swimmers, the chasers and preeners, the vague and the precise.  Great fun - and ably led and supported from off stage as ever from director to designer, from make-up to lights and sound.