Adventures in Pantoland

What a pleasure to visit the Cordes Hall for the first time and see a new fresh take on modern Pantomime with this fun trip through five of the mainstream pantomime titles. With just a hint of Commedia dell'arte, the excellent script takes the Principal Boy, Principal Girl, Dame and Fool through the other stories in search of their true characters. The staging of this in the storybook pages set on the shelf of a library is wonderful with some beautifully painted backcloths for each location for Snow White, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington and Cinderella.

In modern pantomime too often the Principal Boy and Girl get relegated to smaller parts in favour of the Dame and Comic but here they lead the show and the two young performers do so with great confidence and excellent voices with very good support from the rest of the cast including a well drilled juvenile ensemble.

This was a very well-produced show with an energetic and talented young cast who worked hard with a smile on their faces so the audience could not help but be fully engaged and some excellent sets, music choices and choreography. The sense of enjoyment from the cast oozes across the footlights as they delight a partisan audience of family and friends with each song, gag and  plenty of audience interaction. The warm appreciation at the end confirms that we are all glad to be back in a live theatre.

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