“A terrific achievement” Responses to The Monster in the Maze

4 Dec 2024

Reviews are in for our recent production The Monster in the Maze. Read them all online here:

Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian ★★★★

“…First heard only as a tuba-heavy roar of brass, played by a raucous “Minotaur band” in the gallery, the worm-like man-beast was deliciously creepy when he finally appeared through two different entrances simultaneously. The hero of the hour is Theseus – part Wagner’s Siegfried, part Barbie’s Ken – who wore an orange fluorescent shell suit, waved a sword as twinkly as a Christmas tree and knew no fear. The final chorus, these music-makers of Sheffield singing and playing their hearts out, was expansive and stirring.”

Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill

“The whole performance was a terrific achievement… Rosie Kat’s production used the whole auditorium with bravura. We, the audience, were close to and surrounded by the drama, giving the performance real immediacy. The non-professional performers were entirely unphased by this and I was particularly impressed by the way the youth chorus grasped the drama despite being in such close proximity to the audience.”

Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer

“…Rarely if ever have I heard such enthusiasm from a group of singers, who threw themselves into the occasion… And with such engagement form the young singers, it felt just perfect… A triumph, then, and a heart-warming one, a that.”

One of our participants in the adult chorus, Isabel Lovell, wrote this piece about her experience of rehearsals which was shared by Classical Music through the e-newsletter and on their website.

“Last Sunday we had our first rehearsal with all the different choirs– children’s, youth and adult choruses – together, and we were all blown away hearing the children coming in with their parts. Seeing the production slowly come together has been an amazing experience. When rehearsals started, the three choruses rehearsed separately, meeting for two hours every Sunday in the middle of Sheffield. It felt so magical to hear it start to come together, to hear how each part fit together to create something larger than the sum of its parts.”