Carry On Calamity

An invitation arrived by email a few weeks ago, to review Maulden Players ‘pantomime.’ No mention of its title, so I went on their Facebook page to ascertain it. ‘Carry on Calamity!’ Eh? What sort of panto is this? An homage to Kenneth Williams and company? So, with my partner away on family business and unable to attend I borrow an alternative reviewer, the 12year old daughter of a friend and head off with a higher than normal amount of curiosity.

On arrival, the large modern village Hall at Maulden was packed to the rafters and buzzing with anticipation, far more rows of chairs than you would have thought possible had been laid out, their cramped style taken in its stride, as the obviously keen citizens of Maulden squeezed their knees in to see this production. And, to keep us all entertained before the show some wonderful organ music from a large Hammond Keyboard, played by the excellent Ron Chimes.

The atmosphere was building! Finally, the safety announcements, the lights dim and…. a whole station full of New York coppers appear from every conceivable entrance and a couple more on top! Wow! Wait a minute! Have we come to the right theatre? And then it got a whole lot more curious! The curtains opened and we were in a New York apartment and everybody was speaking in American accents! Ok, this is not going to be your traditional English pantomime, rule book now discarded! You have certainly got our attention!

The stage set was something to behold, a series of the most exquisitely painted flats by producer Marion Hynes created for every scene played behind the curtains, a wonderful NY apartment complete with 3D staircase, which really did want to make you climb the walls, an unbelievably realistic Grand Central Railway Station, a fantastic kitchen and not to forget the incredible inside of the Museum, to name just a few of them. You’d be hard pushed to find better scenery design than this, it was quite simply top draw stuff!

Back to the plot. What I soon realised was that I was watching the third adventure of this story and all the locals in the room were completely familiar with and couldn’t wait to see more of all the main characters, who had been around since 2007.  It was a bit like tuning straight into series three of a TV serial. That said it was a standalone episode and it didn’t spoil the enjoyment, but would have been great to have seen the first two episodes beforehand.  

As far as I can make out our heroine (Pantomime dame) Calamity and her (Cross-dressing) husband Dipper; after adventures in The Wild West and Egypt and having made a fortune from being given a recipe for fried chicken, have now settled in New York and plan to exhibit a precious stone acquired, on their Egyptian adventure, at a New York Museum for Antiquities. Meanwhile whilst Calamity’s sister Felicity heads for a trip to England their English cousin Felicia, a dead ringer for Felicity comes to stay. At the same time Gangster Boss Don Giovanni Linguini breaks out of Gaol and, pursued by a bunch of ‘Keystone cops’, plans to steal the precious stone from the Museum, helped by a couple of ‘Morons’ and a fame fatale.  Yep! This was a heist caper turning into a pantomime! Or was it a pantomime turning into a heist caper? Either way, brilliantly written by Director Tracy Canavan-Smith it was too! No predictable banal plot here, it had twists and turns and even the hilarious unmasking (literally) of the surprise baddy. It was as sharp as any comedy script and way above the quality of most pantomime scripts. As a retired publisher, I can tell you this lady has a serious talent from writing comedy. And, to quote my antipodean relations she is not too shabby on the directing front either!

Lighting and sound (not to forget the special effects) by Tayla Blackman and Tom McGrath were pretty top draw too. My only criticism was why only use directional stage mics and not personal ones, some of the songs were hard to hear, especially when not directly sung to the audience and full marks to the singers for mostly being able to sing that way. Brave, but sometimes it didn’t quite come off.

Well done to the wardrobe department headed up by Pat Struthers, that was some array of costumes you had to assemble and a particular mention to Angela Chimes for the splendid creations for Calamity.

Mark Sheppard as Calamity Dame is quite simply a tour-de-force on a stage. He is comedic value personified. His timing is sublime and he just owns the stage. Like all good panto dames nothing phases him and he thrives when things go wrong. As my co-reviewer, Lillian put it, ‘Even when he and Dipper lost their way in the script and were struggling for a prompt they had you in tears of laughter.’

Maxine Tocco as Dipper was just the perfect foil for Sheppard. They are a slick comedy duo and just worked off each other so well, which they have obviously perfected over the three episodes. Never did quite work out why Dipper, now a business owner in NY wore a Davey Crockett outfit the whole way through. I guess a visit to Youtube is necessary to answer that one..?? My overriding moment of this show was the two them singing at the end, Sheppard completely out of tune and Tocco with a sublime voice. I was still crying with laughter half way home. Not many actors could have pulled that off!

Lauren Chimes played her straight roles of Felicity/Felicia to perfection. I kept thinking if this was a thriller she’d be the baddy but no, can’t be, this is panto. She kept me guessing to the end. Nicely done.

Zep Tocco as Don Giovanni Linguini was one seriously convincing gangster. From the accent to the facial expressions he nailed it with sublime comedy timing.

Our two bumbling gang members, or two ‘Morons’ I should say, Alison Struthers as Little Al and Edward Frizzelle as Jimmy Twinkle Toes added yet another layer of well delivered comedy to proceedings working off each other oh so well.

Natalie Chimes was our fame fatale, Darla Darling played with some aplomb whilst Rob Murphy give us a wonderfully frustrated Police Captain surrounded by incompetent officers. Nick Endacott as Mr Bixby was exactly what you expect a museum curator to be like. Even the smaller parts Frankie and Benny (Tim Skinner and Gavin Blackman), Lisa Ashby as the Maid, Kelci Vickers as Geraldine were all so well done. And not to forget an excellent ensemble of Luke Harrison, Ben Michaels, James Forrester, Charlotte Laban, Madeline and Francesca Ashby and Ava Struthers as Kaplinski, This was a top draw cast all round.

In fact, the whole evening was a complete delight and I’m so glad you sought me out, you were a hidden gem in my area. Not any more!

That was the long version of the review. Alternatively, you can ignore all that and simply quote my co-reviewer Lillian who sent the following text during the interval. “Hey Mum, this is REALLY good!” Says it all perfectly!

Thanks for a wonderful evening’s entertainment, what a treat! Now I’m off to YouTube to view the first two adventures whilst Tracy Canavan-Smith writes episode four - hopefully!

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.