For any lover of silliness and whimsy, you can’t go past Roald Dahl.  If it’s not James & The Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox or Matilda, it just has to be the Oompah Loompahs and their magical land of all things sugary sweet.

Sadly Zest tried to stage this production in 2022. However like many other companies they were hit hard with Covid and the show had to be cancelled. Zest have bounced back stronger than ever and have thankfully re-staged the production in 2025 with an outstanding selection of cast members.

It is certainly easy to understand why Joshua Coldwell has received so many awards in recent years and I have no doubt chemistry lessons in his classroom would be interesting. Joshua’s portrayal of Willy Wonka was super silly as it should be and despite his bio in the program stating he was terrified as it was his first musical, I hope it will not be his last.

Robert Walter who plays Charlie Bucket has only been with Zest since 2021. However he has grown up surrounded by music, theatre and stage. Having studied vocals with Ali Dunbar since 2019, his confidence has built to a level where he could take on this iconic role. Given Robert is still in Year 7 his stage smarts were well beyond his years and I hope he too continues to develop his craft for many years to come.

Leila Hollingworth plays the role of Charlie’s mum and has such an air of nurturing about her with her softness and melodic voice it is heart-wrenching watching her have to try and rein in Charlie’s enthusiasm at times when all she wants to do is give him the world.

John Hogg who portrays Grandpa Joe and navigates Charlie through his hopes, dreams and disappointments also is a relative newcomer to the stage and sadly had to wait over two years before he was able to tread the boards as Grandpa Joe having been cast in the role for Zest’s cancelled 2022 production.  His task was made even more difficult having suffered an accident in 2024 but due to his determination and support of Zest he was able to ensure the show went on.

The other Grandies are Heather Riley as Grandma Josephine, Sarah Tymko as Grandpa George and Melissa Rumbelow as Grandma Georgina.  They all play their roles well and Grandpa George’s deep baritone voice must be heard to be believed.

Our cast of young Golden Ticket winners and their parents also commanded the stage with their presence and portrayed their characters extremely well because we, the audience, all grew to detest each and every one of them for their obnoxious, entitled attitudes and behaviour.  Eliza Altamura as Veruca Salt and Daniel Cooper as her enabling father were horrendous as the girl who would not accept NO and her father who paid for it, literally.  Alice Riggs as Augustus Gloop and Rachel Coghlan as Mother would absolutely win any game of ‘Hide n Seek’ given all the places from which food would appear.  Tia Stevenson as Violet Beauregarde and Lucas Irvin as Dad were as annoying as could be with their constant popping and prattle about hits and likes. It made me immediately want to cancel my TikTok and Instagram accounts there and then.  Lastly Riley Hubbard as Mike Teavee and Yasha Button as Mum – both of whom need to get a life.  If that was my child, television and gaming would have been banned long ago.

Will Galvin and Kaitlyn Turner as Jerry Jubilee and Cherry Sundae respectively were incredibly saccharine in their portrayal of TV announcers.  The tiny Oompah Loompahs were so delightful and the costuming of the slightly larger Oompah’s was ingenious, well done to the Costume department.

Finally the production team comprising Mother/Daughter combination of Natalie and Aria Stevenson had an extremely well developed and thought out show.  The movement of large numbers of cast was seamless and the blocking allowed for all cast to be seen without any upstaging.  The choreography by Leila Britton was exceptional with some intricate movement involved but also some clever and practical mass movement items that allowed every cast member to be involved in perfect unison.

My special mention must go to the backstage departments for the amount of time and effort that obviously went into such an enormous undertaking.  This is not an simple show to stage and it would be so easy (if the money were available) to go way over the top with set pieces which possibly could take away from the performance.  This was not the case and every piece was well thought out especially the Glass Elevator at the very end of the show.  The audience were not forgotten either as we were able to purchase authentic Wonka Chocolate from the Factory Shop during the interval.

I know many may feel Victor Harbor is a little bit of a drive, but why not make a weekend of it, visit some of our local coastline, travel on a steam train between Victor and Goolwa, ride the horse drawn carriage to Granite Island and visit the penguins, play a round of golf at the Country Club but even if none of that tickles your tastebuds, don’t miss out on seeing this truly fun and heart warming production.