24 Hour panto

Watlington Players very kindly invited me to attend and review their 24 Hour Panto.

I really had no idea what I was going to attend, the whole premise is that the Panto title is announced at 7.30pm, the script is written, the show cast, rehearsed and performed 24 hours later.

There was obviously some interest in watching this as the venue was over half full with an audience not sure what they were coming to see apart from knowing that this was an ‘adult’ Panto 

There was a good-sized cast to perform this adapted version of Dick Whittington, we had all the usual characters, amended for this version with different names to match the adult theme. These characters were very recognisable with the help of costumes raided from the societies wardrobe, Tommy the Pussy, King Pimp, Dick Whatsitin and the Dame.

Having had very little time to work on a script and learn their lines there were sterling performances from Philly as Alice Fitznicely, Josh as Noddy Normous, Sam Lord as King Pimp and Mary as Dick Whatsitin. Luckily for Chris as Tommy the Pussy very few lines but a nice representation of a cat. Also, a note for Emily as Fairy Bluebells who had the task of opening and narrating the show, giving us a sparkling start.

What songs and choreography that there were, were initially performed with gusto. With the singing presumably led by Amy Power the ensemble gave a good sound, although as the evening wore on and the cast continued with the downing of shots the dialogue and the singing suffered from the lack of concentration. As the show progressed it started to morph into an occasion for the cast to enjoy themselves and perhaps cast away a few inhibitions.

Set and sound were generally up to Pantomime standard considering very little time to prepare anything, how much of the script was made up on the spur of the moment I’m unaware. This was though an opportunity for the society to do something different and to bring it to their audience, who I think on the whole enjoyed the experience.

Did I enjoy it? There were many moments of humour

This was a difficult show to review as there was not much to hang it on, just a list of names given to me by Kevin who had the enviable task of realising his vision so I hope he was pleased with the result.

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