RODGERS and Hammerstein’s last musical together, The Sound of Music, was first performed only 14 years after the end of the Second World War, when memories of Nazi incursions over Europe were fresh in the minds of audiences. Now, the details of that war are unfamiliar to younger viewers, but, thanks to the powerful story (based on true life) and the timeless songs, the musical is as popular as ever.

It’s still hard to get through a performance without wiping away tears, and the summer 2025 production at Shaftesbury Arts Centre, until 12th July, is no exception. David Grierson has worked with the large and talented cast to create a memorable musical event, and mother-and-son directorial team Amy Godfrey Arkle and Tom Arkle have brought intelligent and illuminating insights into what might seem a very familiar story.

The story and the songs are SO familiar that they run the twin dangers of cliche and caricature, but this cast is so perfectly delightful and individual that both are avoided. It would be hard to imagine a more convincing and sympathetic Maria than Georgina Cluett, the postulant nun whose love for the Austrian Alps just overwhelms her desire to obey the strict regime of Nonnberg Abbey. Thankfully, she has a Mother Abbess who understands the power of the mountains, and SAC has the returning Jan Farrington to play her. Jan travelled from her home near Poole to play the role, and brought that soaring classic Climb Ev’ry Mountain to its magnificent climax.

She led a remarkable choir of nuns in plainsong and chorales that transformed the Arts Centre in Bell Street into the convent. Sammy Upton, Susan Grant and Helen Jupp were perfectly contrasted as the three senior sisters whose opinions of Maria include flibbertigibbet, will o’the wisp and clown, which persuades the Abbess to send her off to look after war hero Capt von Trapp’s seven wilful children.

You could not have asked for a more perfect group to perform these roles. Ella Cluett captured the tentative emotions of Liesl, and Harry Phillips was the almost-grown up Friedrich, with Esme Compton Cowdery as the knowing Louisa, Tiro Barnett as plucky Kurt and Agatha Shannon as the wonderfully astute Brigitta. The roles of the youngest two, Marta and Gretl, were shared by the delightful Isla Wood, Holly Loveland, Evelyn-Rose Blunn and Aisling O’Malley.

Tom Arkle made a charmingly roguish Max, with Joni de Winter as Baroness Schraeder.

Rafe Commissaris, a well known local dancer, brought out the true conflict of Rolf, the young Nazi sympathiser whose love for Liesl overcame the dogma. Of course Capt von Trapp, here played by Peter Morris, is the man with the greatest conflict. A vehement supporter of Austria and opponent of Hitler, this is a man who had to balance the safety of his family with his own beliefs, and in those moments this was a powerful and convincing portrayal.

I would have insisted not only in his buttoning his jacket for the early scenes (we hear so much about the Captain’s rigid insistence on rules and uniform) but that ponytail would have been cut off, ready to grow again after the show was over. Petty, you might think, but it was glaringly intrusive.

This Sound of Music is a triumph – beautifully sung from those first moments, using the entire auditorium to huge effect, acted with freshness, conviction and delight, directed with ingenuity. Really, a great show.

GP-W