Aladdin Adventures In The East

A visit to Barton-le-Clay village hall for Barton Players for their annual panto is always great fun, and it would appear to also be this Noda rep’s annual stage appearance. This year’s offering was a good old traditional Aladdin story written by Suzan Holder and in what turned out to be in the very capable hands of Rebecca Smith in her directorial debut. Rebecca was last seen in Barton’s “The Mirror Crack’d” by Rachel Wagstaff, a new adaptation by Agatha Christie .

The set and lighting designed by Keith Bowie started with a very catching light show followed by the entrance through the curtain of Sheherazade, our storyteller to set the scene, informing us she had invented the Tales of the Arabian nights. After an opening number of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ we were whisked off to an Oriental style Bazaar portrayed using a reversible flat with a couple of double width side flats opened with the scene of the Bazaar on one side with a couple of handcarts at either side of it with the various goods for sale.  On the reverse side of the flats were painted to show the inside of Widow Twankey’s laundry with a washing machine and Tumble dryer. Cleverly the circular hole was used as both the door to the washing machine on one side and the reverse was the entrance to the cave. Scene four was the sultan’s palace. The inside of the cave contained various plinths dotted around displaying various jewels and of course, the lamp itself.

There was also supposed to be a magic carpet, which Keith Bowie had adapted from two electric screen mounts, but unfortunately the mechanics failed and they were sadly unable to operate it during the run. But it didn’t make any difference to the story or our enjoyment.

Rachael Bowie not content with the title role also took on the roles of Sound Design, Props, FOH Manager and Programme Designer. Busy lady. Some of the props she selected were also highly amusing. We had two members of the cast dressed in inflatable cow outfits in front of the stage during the singing  of ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun,’ and Aladdin’s chosen mode of transport was a blowup Elephant complete with false legs, to give the appearance he was riding it.  Nice touches!

The costumes and makeup by Derryanne Blunt were of course very appropriate to each character with flowing Arabian outfits which included Aladdin’s pantaloons and red and cream top, the black and red outfit with cape for our baddie Abanazar, the Kung Fu style police uniforms for PC Kung Fu and Officer Tai Chi and the stunning outfit for Princess Jasmine. The Sultan and Sultana’s gold embroidered  outfit was also particular stunning especially with it ‘s flowing tabard hanging down the Sultan’s front. But if there was a Noda national award for best makeup, I would certainly be nominating The Genie of the lamp’s appearance, He was entirely purple with a purple top, including his hands, and his face was completely covered in purple makeup, painted by the genie himself Kevin Fitzgerald. It looked absolutely superb! Hate to think how long it took it to make it up and or take it all off!

The acting in this was great fun with some great portrayals of the traditional characters as well as some new unexpected ones thrown into the story.  Louise Platt opened the show as our story teller, Shehrazade. Rachael Bowie gave us the traditional Aladdin and Tallulah Smith was the demure Princess Jasmine.  Mick Platt was an excellent Wishee Washee, in a refreshing change from the traditional pantomime, his character was the one who first interacted with and woke up the audience. And again, in a slight twist to the plot he is lovesick for Soapy Sophie, demurely played by Chloe Anderson, so we follow two love stories. Mick George as Widow Twankey gave us a brilliantly comedic mimed version of ‘I will Survive.’ Lip sync’d to perfection.  Brillant! John Murphy elicited the traditional boos as the evil Abanazar and pacing every inch of the forestage to do so. His two henchmen,  Shish and Donner, played by Sharon Maltby and Clare Coffey bumbled around provided a lot of the humour mixed with evil intent.

Kate Ruusuvuori as the Genie of the ring was great fun, giving us a recorded message as if you were contacting a company beginning with ‘Thank you for calling Genie Direct, My name is Jennie and I am your genie of the ring today. How may I help you.’  Whereas Kevin Fitzgerald as the very purple The Genie of the Lamp was the more traditional genie but with a somewhat more sceptical nature to much amusement.

Ron Knight was the imposing sultan and Gill George his wife Sultana. And the second double act was Keith Badham as the over-the-top PC Kung Fu, demonstrating his kicks and chops with dangerous intent, accompanied by the almost equally energetic Derryanne Blunt as Officer Tai Chi. It turns out somewhat unexpectantly Keith Badham can do Rap rather well! I wasn’t expecting that!

Well done also to Alysa Brown and Alex Mcdonald as the guards and the chorus of Helen Howden, Lesley Jorgensen and Maddie Laurie.

And then we will brush quickly over the bit where our policeman, PC Kung Fu tries to find out which member of the audience stole some underwear (don’t ask!) and a certain Noda rep, deliberately seated in the front row (Hmm?) ending up on stage  participating unrehearsed in the frivolity!

So, moving swiftly on….

Well done to Rebecca Smith on her directorial debut, her cast and crew for a thoroughly enjoyable show. To be slightly nitpicking, the pace could have been a little faster in some places and entrances a little sharper, but overall, I think she can pat herself on the back and feel she had done a great job. Visiting Barton is always a pleasure, we always leave with a smile and their hospitality is second to none, well apart from the target seat in the front row!

 

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