Back to the Panto

This is another excellent new pantomime by the Company’s in-house writer, Mark Ellison. In previous years, he has based his scripts on Scrooge, TV competitions involving dancing and baking and, last year,  a trip around the world in 80 minutes (or thereabouts).  Now, he turns his attention to time travel as we find ourselves in the company of Marty McFly of the “Back to the Future” films and, more recently a musical. 

We are introduced to the concept by Charlotte Hamilton in a confident performance as H.G. Wells, author of “The Time Machine”, perhaps one of the first to explore the idea.  The plot here is that Marty has missed auditions for a production of a show and, once he meets his Doc, in this case Doctor Who, complete with Tardis, he is assured that time can be adjusted so as to solve the problem. All you have to do is to programme his K9 with the relevant information. Unfortunately, what might be described as an inputting error takes our hero to Stratford-on-Avon in 1609 rather than a rehearsal on 16th September. There he meets the town’s most famous inhabitant, William Shakespeare, who, stricken with an attack of writer’s block, soon exchanges his quill for Marty’s solar-powered guitar and embarks on a career in pop music after which the history of the genre is altered beyond recognition. Villains of the piece are the Master and his assistant, Davros, with their answer to the Tardis in the shape of a portaloo, seeking to capture the guitar and then to eliminate all pop stars and all musical theatre.  Thankfully, despite the efforts of a Dalek, a couple of Cybers and Cyberines, all is well in the end. 

Charlotte Towers gave an excellent performance as Marty, coping well with all the adventures and the task of dog-handler for K9, whose occasional contributions were amusingly voiced by Diane Eyres.  The honour of playing the part of “the bard of Stratford-on-Avon” went to Mike Hewett. Every good panto, of course, needs its dame and here the task falls to Will’s wife, Annie, initially confused with the Hollywood actress who shares her maiden name. By the end we learn that it is she who can be blamed for the creation of the pantomime with its songs, custard pies and “bard” jokes.  Chris Meadley clearly enjoyed every moment of this role and his easy rapport with the audience was excellent. Just as important are the baddies and    Philip Nichols led the way as the Master with sonorous voice and impressive cloak-twirling.  Andy Lloyd as the scooter-riding Davros is not entirely sympathetic to the tasks specified by his boss, even admitting to being something of a Swiftie but his performance of the song “This is me” was one of the musical highlights.  Jo Hawkins and Andy Mee were rather untrustworthy assistants as Chuckle Brothers style Cyril and Cynthia Cyber and Kevin Bowes appeared as the Doc, making a valiant effort to retain control of all that went on. He was well supported by Clare Meadley as his assistant, Rose, who was also the source of more of the fun, even when she suffered the misfortune of being deleted, thankfully, only temporarily.

Meeting the Shakespeares provided opportunities to include medleys from “West Side Story” and “Kiss me Kate”, both, of course, based on his plays and the chorus took full advantage.  So too did Annie with a song from the show of her name (“You’re never fully dressed”), supported by the junior chorus, who also made valuable appearances elsewhere. It was no surprise that a panto about time travel should include “the Time Warp” and, although the programme asked us to wait and see what would be the obligatory audience number, it turned out to be Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”, so familiar to all that the 100-year old hall reverberated to a good sound.  A small band of keyboards and percussion provided good support and the whole show was enhanced by some excellent scenes on a large and impressive videowall.  Angela Edwards again made an excellent job of putting it all together.             

Future plans include a cabaret in March and who knows what at panto time. Whatever the choice, I am sure we can look forward to further excellent entertainment from this company.                         

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