Aladdin

The first thing that struck me when I entered The Digswell Village hall was how much Digwell players mean to the community, 70 years is definitely a worth while anniversary to have and it was lovely to read the bunting with all the titles of the pantomimes performed, and I also enjoyed looking at the previous pantomime artwork placed around the hall. Aladdin is a traditional pantomime that I and many other have seen many times, it was lovely to watch a different version with different characters and new ideas.

Music chosen and played David Meek, never easy to make yourself sound like a band when you are playing on your own, at times I forgot it was just David playing. Simple choreography, but everyone doing the move at the same time can look so effective, Emma Gilby achieved this, made even more impressive as she pulled double duty as one of the leads!

Tim Palmer played the evil Abanazar. I find that there are two ways to play Abanazar either, evil, or sarcastic and Tim managed a little bit of both, he was at his best when sarcastic though! Genie of the Ring played by Mary Goodfellow, had some good one liners that were well delivered.

Emma Gilby and Oliver Baskerville played the classic knock around Sidney and the monkey Bibi respectively. Good energy from Emma and I was pleased to see the magic trick work by the end! Aladdin (Chloe Palmer) and Princess Jasmine (Alice Hoxha) had a good working relationship and Aladdin had a good relationship with not just Jasmine but also the Genie played by Adam Beckman. The energy changed when he came on, lovely voice, big character and super comic timing, a very good performance!

Gertie played by Pip Gray, obviously an experienced dame and he knows how to work an audience and ad lib effortlessly. You could not help but love Gertie. Pip made sure Gertie was warm, and audience friendly for all ages, well done! I would also like to praise Amanda Baskerville and Ruth Johnson for Gertie’s costumes, I understand they are not hired but made and they were stunning I really liked the shirt in the café scene, and the wigs were on point and beautiful.

Peter Farrell (Emperor) and Claire Westlake (Doris) played their roles well and made sure the tricky café scene flowed and worked well. I really liked Fazil the snake (puppet) worked and voiced by Andrew Read. Obviously well-rehearsed and at time a scene stealer.

The set was a real highlight and a testament to Anne Bishop and Mary Portalska, the level of detail on the flats made the set a character in its own right, ‘We buy any camels’ being advertised, genius idea. The number of flats that were created and, to this detail again was staggering, even the arches matched up in the palace! This was the same for props, the attention to detail was great.

Lighting was good, I am not personally a big fun of black outs but understand why they were used here, however an audience can be forgiving and when Abanazar was saying one of monologues while a cloth was being taken out in Act 2 it did help the pace, and no one noticed the cloth going. Thank you to Alice and The Digswell Players for their hospitality and I look forward to coming back in May.

Scott Welch

District 9

NODA East

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