Trinity seniors bring fairytales to life

PERFECT MATCH: Cinderella (Lauren Taylor) weds her prince (John Beijen).PHOTOS/MARSHALL PITNEY

Fairytale princesses, puffed-up princes, larger-than-life witches, a knife-wielding Red Riding Hood, and some magnificent singing voices: Rathkeale and St Matthew's Senior College's latest production is quite enchanting.

This year, the colleges chose Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical Into The Woods - which gained further popularity after a recent movie adaptation, starring Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp.

With an ensemble cast of talented youngsters, and the directorship of teachers Joanne Simpson and Adam Gordon, the Senior College has knocked it out of the park. Or the woods.

Into the Woods tells the tale of a baker and his wife (James Boyce and Lucy France) who are cursed with infertility by the witch next door (Jacinta Ward), as revenge for the baker's father robbing her garden.

To reverse the spell, the couple head for the forest, in search of four items for a potion to restore the witch's beauty.

They cross paths with an array of storybook characters - Cinderella (Lauren Taylor), Jack (Jordan Thurston), Little Red Riding Hood (Eden Wallace) and Rapunzel (Leila Houlbrooke) - each with a quest of their own.

Eventually, everyone gets their wish - but life after happy endings doesn't go as planned.

Lauren, with her ethereal soprano voice, was the perfect Cinderella, playing the reluctant princess with strength and vulnerability.

Lucy brought warmth and sincerity to the baker's wife, torn between the comfort of family and the thrill of forbidden romance - and her and Lauren's voices were a lovely match on their duet A Very Nice Prince.

Eden played Little Red Riding Hood with fizz and sparkle, gleefully waving a knife and recalling her lessons learned in I Know Things Now, while Leila relished her role as Rapunzel, the closeted beauty prone to screaming fits.

The boys' cast were similarly on point: Jordan brought energy and a rich voice to the adventurous Jack; James as the baker, though seeming nervous at first, offered raw emotion when tragedy struck; and Isaiah Davies gave a superb cameo as the lascivious wolf.

My personal favourites were John Beijen and John Weidling, delightfully pompous as Cinderella and Rapunzel's princes, bringing many laughs with their duet Agony - lamenting the trials of pursuing maidens fair.

But the star of the show was Jacinta as the witch, in all her cackling, scheming, curse-laying glory. Jacinta showed great range in her acting, playing the "villain" with flourish and exuberance, but also bringing tenderness and regret to the witch's relationship with Rapunzel, her adopted daughter.

And her powerful, sumptuous vocals on The Last Midnight brought the house down.

Overall, another solid effort from Rathkeale and St Matthew's - which has got me obsessively listening to the soundtrack on Youtube, and planning to rent the DVD. Well done, guys - it was magic.