Adventure in Pantoland

I had not seen this pantomime before but I loved the concept of 6 panto’s for the price of one with each of the principals taking the same part in each one. This society really made this work. The set looked great and worked really well with some action in front of the tabs to keep the flow of the show. The lighting was plotted with care complimenting the different characters. The props worked well and came on and off with ease. With each panto change the principals in the main had different costumes which were fantastic, very bright and colourful. The song choices worked really well and ranged from Musical Theatre songs to older and more modern pop songs. The dancing was very effective suiting the mixed ages and abilities of the players.

The Ensemble and Junior Nippers worked hard in the chorus scenes and musical numbers but the real strength of this show was how brilliantly cast the Principals were. From Tracey Barham who played the Genie with real presence to the Dame (more on her/him later) every part was filled brilliantly with every ounce of stage presence being squeezed out of every pore. The King and Queen were superbly played by Mervyn Whitaker and Aileen Wiswell and I particularly liked Aileen’s song in the second half which was delivered with great style and frustration. The baddies, Poison Ivy played by Vicky Dilworth and Wizbad by Lisa Griffiths were tremendous. Rousing the audience into booing and hissing every time they were on stage, they both commanded the stage and had great vocals. Boy and Girl played respectively by Emma Benson and Laura Roberts really looked the parts, complimented each other and had some great songs together which sounded great. Louise Morris played Fairy Honeysuckle beautifully. She held the whole show together and narrated between scenes making sense of the whole 3 hours. Carla Hayden made a fantastic fool using different accents in each panto and reminding us that this was indeed a different story. Her comic timing was fabulous and she played the part with great engagement with the audience. The Dame was played hilariously by Mike Jones-McCaw. Again using different accents for each Dame from Irish to London to Scottish to my personal favourite, Chinese I came out with jaw ache from laughing so much. The make-up looked fantastic and the costumes were wonderful. Mike interacted expertly with the audience and his fellow players, never missing an opportunity for the humour in any given scene or mistake. This was a cracking pantomime with lots of laughs and driven by the skill of great direction and experienced principals who really threw themselves into the parts they were playing. A great evening’s entertainment.

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