ESSPA youngsters wow Pavilion audiences with Legend

It was an apt choice, therefore, for East Sussex School of Performing Arts to choose it as the theme for this year's De La Warr Pavilion show.

Like the legend of St George, the reputation of ESSPA, founded in 1992, grows year by year.

Two triumphant performances on Wednesday of Legend The Musical, proved the point.

Under their founder and director, Teena Symonds, the youngsters wowed their appreciative audiences with their skills, their vivacity and their talent.

Like its predecessors, this production was put together by the teaching staff as a vehicle, a showcase, for that skill and talent.

With choreography by Kym Giggins, Teena Symonds and Jennifer Miles and with James Symonds as production designer, Legend was built not on myth but a sure professional foundation.

To this its young cast added scene after memorable scene of seamlessly blended song and dance.

Woven musically into the telling of Legend was everything from Khachachurian and Jaques Ibert to Mack And Mabel and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

It worked '“ brilliantly.

Into the Medieval village of Laughtonmoor comes a young man with a yen to become a knight and join others off to the Crusades.

But his big moment comes when what is thought to be a forest fire proves to be a particularly destructive dragon.

While we had Medieval air-guitar and other light-hearted moments, there was, overall, less humour to Legend than in last year's production of Honk! the story of the ugly duckling.

What Legend did have was dramatic effect.

The Spring Fair and the Pancake Competition are money-spinners for Laughtonmoor and rather than let refugees mar the day the pompous Lord Mayor, admirably played by Jackson Tigwell, has them put out of sight.

Laughtonmoor is really rocking to You Can't Stop The Beat when the fire-breathing monster ruins the party.

Dramatically, this masterly piece of special effect was the high-spot of the first half. But nothing could up-stage this young cast.

Eden Parker Demir as George, Adam Smith as the Minstrel and Oliver Metzler as Pippin the itinerant entertainer demonstrated maturity and stagecraft well in advance of their years, good voices and bags of "presence."

But this production was not about solo performances but about teamwork and among its many strengths was the uniformity of skills demonstrated; from the primary dancers through to the top ballet and tap grades, elementary drama through to 11+ and teenage drama groups.

The finale, when there was not a square foot of stage, apron or the balconies overlooking them that was not packed by this massive cast, demonstrated what a feat of stagecraft and logistics Legend had been.

The credits for the costume-sewing team and the chaperones filled line after line of the programme.

It did the heart good to see so much young Bexhill talent enjoy achieving so much - and to such genuine acclaim.