Barnard Castle School stages ambitious production of Les Miserables

Barnard Castle School students added a matinee performance to meet the demand for tickets in a sell-out musical production of Les Misérables.

For four nights and an afternoon they transported the audience back to the streets of Paris to witness an emotional story of love, life, death and redemption.

Valjean, played by Josh Hodgson, says his farewells to Cossette, played by Grace Robinson and Marius, Mathew Kerr, as the ghost of Fantine, Anna Forbes, watches on

A cast and crew of about 50 students from all year groups had just two months to rehearse the musical adaptation of the classic Victor Hugo novel.

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The principal roles were taken by Josh Hodgson as Valjean, Benji Wilson as Javert, Mathew Kerr as Marius, Izzy Yeadon as Eponine, Grace Robinson as Cosette, Freddie Barrett as Enjolras, Dan Newell as Thenardier, Lois Falshaw as Mme Thenardier, Amelia Younis as Gavroche and Anna Forbes as Fantine.

Benjio Wilson as Javert

Directed by head of drama Scott Edwards, with a live orchestra conducted by director of music Richard Dawson, the production featured a spectacular moving set featuring a barricaded 19th Century Paris during the French revolution.

Ladies of the night in Barnard Castle School’s sell-out production of Les Misérables

Mr Edwards said: “Les Misérables is a long and challenging production in every sense and for us could only happen this year when our current cohort was so strong. It would have been a travesty not to perform a sung-through show of such sweeping scale before we bid adieu to our upper sixth form performers.

“I’m delighted to say that all of our cast, crew and musicians rose to the challenge and I was thrilled to see the sense of bon homie that a musical across the year groups allows and the sense of camaraderie it always produces.”