Adventures In Pantoland

Silverdale's annual Panto offering this year Adventure in Pantoland, by Alan P Frayn.

The story starts in the Land of Make Believe - the home of all panto characters when they're not performing in panto. Everything is going swimmingly until Poison Ivy, the witch, banishes some of the best loved panto characters (Dame, Fool, Boy, Girl etc), and in doing so wipes their memory. The rest of the Panto involves these characters (with Fairy Honeysuckle, Poison Ivy and characters relevant to whichever panto) trying out their "mirror" roles in six other well-known and best loved pantomimes to find out exactly where they fit in.  

Whilst there's a lot going on in this story, the six main characters are hardly ever offstage (apart from their costume changes to fit in with whichever town/village/palace they find themselves in). The changes in location are generally covered by Fairy Honeysuckle and Poison Ivy interactions with each other or with the audience.  

The interactions between Fairy Honeysuckle and Poison Ivy, played by Tracey Aukland and Kathy Talbot were well executed, with both setting out their stall early on in the proceedings. The audience loved to hate Kathy's Poison Ivy, and Kathy gave back as good as she got.  

Once again John Auckland took on the mantle of Dame. John's experience carried him through, knowing exactly how to play the audience, with accents galore and the odd risqué ad-lib, you knew the various dames were in safe hands.  

Keith Hildrew played the Foo l- quite literally. With great timing and facial expressions, Keith had the audience in stitches, and on occasion his fellow performers.  

Generally Principal Boy and Principal Girl carry the love story and, in my experience, in the past, when they're on that's when the kids start rustling sweet papers or needing the loo. Not so with this story, as the action happens thick and fast, so Willow Parker and Gemma Barks got a real chance to captivate the audience with their personalities.  

Added to this is Wizbad, the Apprentice Wizard who tries to help in Poison Ivy's terrible schemes- You could tell that Muriel Hildrew enjoyed playing the role, especially when onstage with Poison Ivy- they bounced off each other perfectly.  

There are quite a few other roles in this Panto, and all were well received and well performed- including The Herald, Queen, King, Tommy the cat (played by Evie Shone, Andrew Bodenham, Lorraine Speak and Rosie Shone) to name but a few, and each played their part well.  

Almost stealing the show for me, Rachael Shone as the Genie was in fact, genie-ous. This was one of the funniest interpretations I have seen of this character - it's just a shame that the role is limited in this Panto.  

Chorus work and other minor roles were played enthusiastically by the cast members, and on the whole, the whole production, well received.  

Staging was simple and effective - though the crew and scene designers probably won't agree, due to the number of settings. On occasion the lighting was a tad pedestrian in picking up the Fairy, but she managed to find her light in the end.  

The chorus and cast were well drilled in their musical numbers, which I'm sure Lorraine Speak and Helena Morwood were pleased about.  Choreography (Margie Parker, Tracey Auckland) was enthusiastically performed by the cast.  

Director Mitch Noon had obviously had a lot of fun directing this, and it showed in both the performances and the audience reception.  

Thank you, Silverdale for your hospitality and invite.

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