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Review: Puffs - Villanova Players


Written by Jake Goodall

Enter into the world of Hogwar.... we mean a certain school of magic and magic! Where rather than focussing on the boy who lived, we change perspective and look at the Puffs of the story! Villanova Players Start-Ups' newest production, Puffs (or seven increasingly eventful years at a certain school of magic and magic), is a hilarious take on the famous magical story!

Puffs follows the story of Wayne Hopkins: a regular boy who finds out he’s a wizard and goes to school in England where he makes two best friends and has adventures. This perhaps sounds familiar. But, Wayne is sorted as a Puff, he and the other Puffs simply want to learn how to be wizards and avoid attacks by evil wizards.

Directed by Lillian Dowdell & Kristina Redwood, This production has the audience laughing from top to bottom. Dowdell and Redwood clearly worked extremely hard on this production to squeeze every comedic idea out of the performers, which created a brilliant production. Set design by Aimee Sheather was simple yet effective, utilising platforms to add height this gave extra areas to create the dynamic settings where this play takes place. Additionally, the subtle 'Puffs' decor helped to add to the magical aesthetic of the production. Sound Design by Lillian Dowdell and Lighting Design by Ayden McCarthy were both simple yet effective, utilising simple sound effects and subtle changes in lighting these technical elements added greatly to help the story and performers shine. 

The true strength in this production lies within the immensely talented troupe of performers featuring Priya Shah, Sam Connolly, Cullyn Beckton, Hannah Martin, Aimee Sheather, Grace Lashbrook and Michaela Gallagher. All these performers were hilariously funny fully embodying their characters. 

Jackson Paul as the hero, Wayne Hopkins from Beenleigh, was stunning in their role. Paul is a natural talent and engrossed the audience throughout the entire production. Mia Lierich as Megan Jones was the hard hitting character that brought the fire. Jones created a multi-layered character that we think some parts everyone could relate to. Jeremy Hales as Oliver Rivers, the token 'mug-born' was hilarious and nerdy. Hales created some beautiful moments outside of the hilarity, but make no mistake, Hales was hilarious as ever!

The absolute stand out in this production was Dom Bradley in the J.Finch Track. Bradley played multiple characters throughout the production and was the comedic highlight. Bradley has a natural talent for comedy and had the audience crying from laughter with their development of different characters. Not only was Bradley showcasing their comedic chops, proving they could switch between multiple different characters throughout this two-act production was something to be enviable of.  

Overall Puffs by Villanova Players Start-Ups is a five-star MUST SEE production that will have you hurting from laughter for the entire production. Don't miss this show, it MUST CLOSE 21st of April!

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