Unite Youth Theatre 
Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre For The Arts, Poole 
Chelsea Sherry 
14 July 2024
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory is one of Roald Dahl’s most famous books, and you’d be hard pressed to find an adult in England who doesn’t at least know the bones of the story. Downtrodden and poor Charlie Bucket gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he finds one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets. With a host of eccentric characters, it’s no wonder that this show was brought to London’s West End in 2013. Unite Youth Theare have brought this show to the Lighthouse Theatre in Poole, with a host of talented children.
The actors onstage did a great job with the show. I will not be using anyone’s names in this review as the programme shows me that a number of roles were doubled up on, and I’m not certain who played what role in the show I saw.
Willy Wonka was a great presence throughout the show, and he co-led with Charlie Bucket very well indeed. Willy Wonka has always been a bit of a strange and slightly unnerving character, and I think the actor portrayed him very well. I also really enjoyed the portrayal of Charlie Bucket. The actor gave him a lot of energy and made him a very interesting character to watch – I was also very impressed by the singing, especially given the character was barely off the stage. Grampa Joe was also a good character and I thought the chap playing him showed a real strength in his acting ability.
All of the other golden ticket winners (Violet, Mike, Augustus and Veruca) and their accompaniment to the factory did a brilliant job in their roles. Each character was completely different, but all of the actors did a brilliant job with bringing those characters to life.
However, although the background effects were visually pleasing, each time the curtain fell you could see the projection of the curtain. The sound balance was also off, with some singers incredibly quiet where others were extremely loud, while the level of music against the singers meant that some Ensemble singing was lost to the music. There were also times when the mics were left on too long so that offstage whispers could be heard across the auditorium.
Kudos to Maria Mara, Kiera Jane Rickford, Bejamin Mundy and Llandyl Gove for directing and choreographing all of the children. That can’t be an easy job but, on the whole, they all looked confident with what they were doing and delivered their lines, dances and characters with a lot of enthusiasm.
Thank you to Unite Youth Theatre for having us today; I wish them the best for their second show.
