What with the March snow and the economic chill a little bit of cheerful escapism was what we all needed as the 
Spring Term came to its end – and this is just what the Farlington Prep School provided to great effect in “Blast Off”.
As the show’s title suggests, this is essentially a space fantasy, albeit sandwiched between a humorous story of the saving of Snodbury Primary School from premature closure.
“Blast Off” opens with the school cleaners up in arms and it must be said that Doris, Mavis and Gladys, while comic stereotypes, were portrayed with considerable panache and a suitable degree of union militancy.
A lovely role to act was that of Mrs Taylor, the school secretary, and the girls who played this made a real character of her, not to mention her pet dog!
I do not think that Mrs Baggs has much professional competition from Mr Jones, the hapless headmaster, who takes the students on the space trip.
Here the girls managed to keep the narrative, pace and humour going really well and give their parts – like that of the gluttonous George – well observed and recognisable mannerisms.
The school party meet a variety of aliens, a UFO, a satnav and a couple of space holes and these provided us with
some colourful zaniness.
Particularly impressive throughout the show was the clear diction of the actors – the UFO for example mastering a string of psychiatric terminology and the Prof reeling off some serious scientific vocabulary.
The media “scrum” was never far behind the action, bringing out the satirical edge to the script with considerable skill. The story does of course end happily and even the draconian school inspector had to change her tune.
This brings us on nicely to the musical numbers, which provided a foot-tapping mix of rock ’n roll pastiche and sing-a-long numbers like “Let’s go to the planets”.
The duet by the Black and White Holes was a highlight and furnished an opportunity for a sophisticated bluesy rendition; and one of the favourites of the evening was “The sauce is with us”, a lovely, witty number and very cleverly choreographed. Year 5 added suitable gusto to the singing in songs like “Jupiter Rock” and clearly this was a show enjoyed by all its enthusiastic cast.
The wonderfully colourful costumes, designed by Lindsay Strivens and provided by the Sandra Wilson School of Dance gave us all a pleasant respite from the grey skies outside – and I think that this sums up the show: a cheerful, feel-good escape, acted and sung, as always, with great charm and engagement.
Credit to all concerned, especially Lucy Cooper, who directed with her usual highly professional skill and Anne Stearns, responsible for the excellent and imaginative musical direction.