Edinburgh Fringe 2025
All Shook Up
Nelson Youth Theatre
Genre: Youth Theatre
Venue: Space at TripleX.
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Boasting a script with more twists and turns than a season of Shortland Street, this youth theatre musical manages to bring originality through the prism of a little bit of Twelfth Night, a little bit of Grease, and a little bit of Footloose to the Fringe. It manages to platform individual performances, however, is strongest when they work as a group. Technically, this was an effective and interesting use of the space.
Review
One of the joys about Youth theatre is its scale – you get a big cast. One of its greatest challenges is its scale – it’s difficult to find plays that accommodate all of them. That’s why original work works, but it can lead to patchy success as skill in playwriting can be difficult to find in the youth theatre realm.
Here, Nelson Youth Theatre have a range of range of abilities, ages and stages on stage, which works well. They also have a script which is their equal. It passes muster in the medium of musical theatre, and the greatest compliment is despite the plot twists we are never confused.
The story was that in mid-west America in a small town, roustabout, Chad arrived with a broken-down motorbike to set the romantic cat amongst the unsuspecting pigeons. The year, 1955. The music – all Elvis.
And so… Natalie loved Chad, who loved Miss Sandra, who loved Ed, who was Natalie. Jim, who is Natalie’s dad, then loved Miss Sandra too. Then Chad kissed Ed, while Sylvia realised that she loved Jim. And amongst all of that, Diana loved Lorraine, and Lorraine loved Diana back, who was the daughter of the local mayor, Matilda, who loved Earl, and Earl asked her to marry him. On the day of their nuptials, all of the above was resolved, and people ended up getting married together, apart from the roustabout Chad, who was turned down by the grease monkey Natalie, despite the fact that she fell for him. Clear?
To be fair it was, and didn’t need an episode of The Brokenwood Mysteries to clear it up.
Nelson Youth Theatre are based in a small town in New Zealand and have come across not for the first time to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to perform. The great credit of making that journey aside, this was a well worth the carbon footprint. The gusto with which both audience and the actors on stage took to this musical was admirable.
The integration of the songs, giving them narrative purpose was really good, though the accents were, meandering, and forgivable, I did wonder if setting it in a New Zealand town would have altered the narrative too much but given the cast more comfort in performing.
Whilst individual direction was good, I thought there were a number of missed opportunities. The most powerful and most sublime moment came when Can’t Help Falling in Love was done as an ensemble piece. It was an incredible moment. The power of having all those voices combined together harmonising was an indication of the collective power of the group. There were other choral opportunities which were missed. Had that been used more often, then I think some of the more challenging elements of the show would have been better supported and helped.
Like all youth theatre performances there were a few performers a little off beat or a little off key, though they deserved to be onstage with the rest. Nobody’s favourite song was ever going to be Earl’s who beautifully matched my own musical prowess, and whilst a number of solos managed to hold themselves with skill, expecting young people in a festival of this size to hold so many songs and hit their heights was perhaps just a tad beyond them. Had they been able to depend upon their supporters on stage rather than those in the auditorium it would have been stronger.
But the luxury here is being able to reflect that back. This was a really good example of youth theatre work: an exceptional journey, a fantastic opportunity, a great experience. These young people demonstrated that if you put youth theatre together properly what you are going to get is creativity. Not knowing the background of any of these young people does not stop me from thinking that if Nelson Youth Theatre make that journey back, I will make sure that I am in the front of the queue to see what they do next.
