Chess is an ambitious, risk-taking musical for an amateur theatre company. A grand, operatically inspired score by Abba’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus with lyrics by Tim Rice, depends heavily on the clarity of the vocals to tell the story, and for me, this is where Newport Operatic Society’s production hit a problem.

An undoubtedly capable and well-rehearsed orchestra threatened to overshadow rather than complement a competent cast, and consequently, I struggled to pick up important elements of the plot.

That said, there were some individually outstanding performances.

Lucy Phillips was a power-house in the lead role of Florence Vassey, the grand-mistress caught between two Cold War era, chess champions, whilst Abbey Waters lent warmth and emotion to wronged wife, Svetlana Sergievskaya. The much revered, I Know Him So Well, being a stand-out highlight of the night.

Kevin Myers (Anatoly Sergievsky) and Ian Eadon-Davies (Freddie Trumper) hit just the right note of tension in their east meets west rivalry, whilst aides John Davies (Alexander Molokov) and Wayne Vincent (Walter de Courcey) successfully continued the extended struggle.

A black, white and red theme running throughout ensured the production was visually stunning and with all of the action taking place on a stage-sized chess board, it was left to the balletic, human chess pieces to juxtapose the calm with the chaos.

Ostentatious? maybe. Entertaining? Definitely. You have until Saturday to catch up with it.