Aladdin

It was lovely to receive such a warm welcome from writer and director Karen Bays. The Saturday Matinee was a sell out and it was a nice touch to see the Girl Guides and Brownies seated together on mats at the front. It is obvious from just a quick glance at the programme that Wellworth Players are a family orientated society, with several surnames being repeated in both the cast and production teams. I was also pleased to read that Karen had explained to the audience why they wouldn’t be hearing any Disney songs.

The Arabian Storytellers began the pantomime setting the scene with well pronounced lines and colourful costumes and we were quickly introduced to a suitably evil looking Abanazer, played by Mark Hebert and his two sidekicks James Webb and Jago Pearson, appropriately named – Evil and Mean. Rachel Haynes as the Slave of the Ring was a suitable contrast to this dark trio easily commanding her presence on the stage.

I thought the interaction with the audience was excellent throughout and felt very natural, Lizzy Elliot as a female Wishee Washee was particularly skilled at this. Geoff Durrant and Julie Law played suitably regal Emperor and Empress Chop and Suey, and the company bowing to ‘Chop Suey’ caused much laughter in the audience. Neal Dench made a great entrance as Widow Twankey and with good singing and stamina in an entertaining version of ‘I Will Survive.’  As someone who was brought up watching Eric and Ernie on Saturday night TV, I absolutely adored the re-enactment of the famous Breakfast scene by Wishee Washee and Widow Twanky.

Chris Thomson demonstrated some lovely comedic timing as Aladdin, and I thought the Flat Aladdin scene was particularly funny. His transformation into ‘Ali’ was enhanced by a great costume, which while somewhat over the top was completely appropriate for this pantomime. Daisy Phillips as the (until the last scene) nonspeaking toy monkey shone in her role with lovely facial and physical gestures. There were several very challenging songs for the cast to cope with, one that was sung very well was ‘Nobody’s Gonna Love Him Like Me’ sung in rap style by Francesca Mann as our Princess Jasmine, with good backing vocals by ‘Jasmine’s Girls.’ I also enjoyed ‘Count on me’ sung by the two Policemen, Simon West and Abi Pearson., although I’m not sure that the ‘Laughing Policeman’ was the correct song for the audience participation. A few of the children looked quite unsure what they were expected to do as they were obviously unfamiliar with the song. Perhaps a few actions in the chorus might have helped?

Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Show was a great way to start the second act and was impressively led by Joseph Munoz, who had a very quick change into the Genie of the Lamp.

Throughout the performance there were a number of brilliantly cringeworthy, completely silly, and very funny jokes, many with local relevance, my favourite was the mention of the Great Pyramids of Pidley!

Sound and Lighting by Zak Martin and Darren Seekings was very good for a show which is put on in a village hall, which only a week before had no stage, curtains, lights, or seating. There was no waiting for the songs to start and the sinister lighting for Abanazer, Mean and Evil was well timed. The show also flowed very well, with good use of the space in front of the curtains during scene changes. Boggle, the Stage Manager obviously runs a good team.

I was expecting to see Aladdin and Princess Jasmine in their wedding outfits in the final scene, however the enthusiastic singing of the final numbers more than made up for this slight disappointment.

Thank-you, Wellworth Players, for a most enjoyable afternoon.

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