Monmouth’s Mayhem Youth Theatre left audiences wanting more in their recent performance of the popular sung-through musical, Les Miserables, at the Forest Theatre in Coleford.

Set in the France in the early 19th century, local students portrayed idealistic students in this tale of loss and despair, love, law and morals, with characters caught amongst a revolutionary period in France.

The story revolves around a convict, Jean Valjean, who escapes parole after spending 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread.

Valjean was played by Chris Bashford, who’s acting belied his young age. His diction and singing, particularly his high belt at the end of Valjean’s Soliloquy was excellent and the audience was moved by his performance of Bring Him Home in the second half. He lost his way in Valjean’s Soliloquy in the performance I watched, but was excellent in recovering it.

The police inspector Javert, who is hellbent on fufilling his obligation to the law and the justice system, was played by Josh Ellis. Javert’s madness in the second half, torn between his beliefs about God and his desire to adhere to the law, were excellently portrayed in Javert’s Suicide, with a great fall executed by Josh.

Best singing performances were executed by Eponine, played by Gracie Follows, who’s vocal clarity and tone gave one of the most memorable performances of the night with On My Own.

Young Cosette, played by Annie Porter, had a very short appearance singing Castle on a Cloud, but you could tell she had a fantastic voice.

Madame Thenardier, played by India Elliott, also had a very good vocal clarity in acting and singing, and the strength of her singing voice was to be admired.

Some of the best acting performances included Marius, played by Josh Morgan, who’s singing voice, diction and acting ability, brought me close to tears in Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.

Marius and Eponine’s duet of A Little Fall of Rain, was one of the best performances of the night.

Thenardier, played by Dan Follows, was also a standout acting performance. Dan brought the biggest energy to the stage, particularly in Master of the House.

Florence Mayo’s acting as Fantine was particularly good in the Epilogue, caringly watching over Valjean, Marius and the sweetly played Cosette, (Sophie Pope).

I was also impressed by Enjolras’ high belted singing in The ABC Café - Red and Black, played by Oliver Riba Fookes, and Coufreyac’s acting and clear singing, (Bethany Piper).

The only distraction to the performance was hair in the faces of some of the performers and the shuffling of feet, which took away from their acting.

I also can not ignore how irritating it was when a male audience member ran across the stalls at the end of Act One, which took away from the impact of One Day More.

The young orchestra tackled a massive score impressively. However, the orchestra often followed the performers timing, which meant that the performers slowed down and sped up certain parts of the music, and often looked at the conductor, which was mildly distracting.

The costumes were excellent, appropriate to the time period, and the set was very effective. However, the set changes were a little bit clumsy, with lighting drawing attention to the stage crew and some blackouts in the wrong places.

If you can catch this great production of Les Miserables, performances are still running, with tickets still avaliable for Friday, October 27th and Saturday, October 28th.