Cinderella

As my pantomime season draws to end “Oh yes it does” I am always excited when invited to review Dryburn Theatrical Workshop’s pantomime performance and this year was no exception.
This talented group always goes that extra mile and I am guaranteed to witness something unique and leave the performance feeling uplifted. This year’s performance of Cinderella written by Tom Whalley his third pantomime for the group was no exception; under the expert direction of Michelle Coulson she certainly fulfilled the criteria working the group of talented actors to showcase a colourful interpretation of this wonderful love story full of interesting characters. The music choice was a mixture of modern and traditional numbers produced by the musical Director Brian Pennick and the energetic Chorography was well drilled by Helen Wilson creating some interesting movement which enhanced this lively rendition of this pantomime in true tradition.

The set was fantastic, bright and colourful with an array of back cloths and gauzes to create the different atmospheres and scenes, sound and lighting design was good and this coupled with excellent costumes provided by Alan Graham provided a winning combination both audibly and visually. 
The show got off with an impressive start with Geordie Godmother played by Libby Kennedy introducing the audience to the story and continued to narrate throughout the show, excellent performance with good characterisations; enter Buttons on his go-cart played by the talented Joseph Coulson; he certainly knew how to play the audience and within no time had them eating out of his hands - excellent performance some good musical numbers especially his interpretation of Lunchmoney Lewis song “Bills”.

Suitably lovely as Cinderella, Emma Scott was first class she had good stage presence and a lovely warm acting style which was perfect for the role of Cinderella as well as a lovely singing voice. Prince Charming was suitably played by Karl Herbert in his first role with the group; again a good acting style and I liked the fact that he played the guitar in his musical number “Its All About You”, Dandini his faithful servant friend was confidently played by Phil Martin, an excellent performance and confidently portrayed as did Gary Blackbird in the role of Major Domo and Gary Eglinton provided a strong and characterful performance as Barron Hardup.

Every pantomime needs a good villain and in this case she came in the role of Baroness Griselda, confidently played by Karen Scott who delivered an excellent portrayal of the hard hearted stepmother necessarily evil and at times very funny she had the audience booing in al the right places her role was supported by her side kick Stottie the cat played by Adam Donald again he played this dark role brilliantly and they both bounced off each other with the right balance of evil. Completing the family was 'Bella needs a fella' played by Lee Passmoor and 'Stella Artois' played by Malcolm Quinn alias the ugly sisters - and boy were they ugly, and in my view the best ugly sisters I have ever seen. Whilst Malcolm is no stranger to the role of the dame this is the first for Lee and he took to it like a duck to water milking every ounce of humour and they both played their parts to perfection, amazing costumes, makeup and over the top personalities and  comic timing especially in the haunted forest scene and I enjoyed the traditional panto sing along to the song Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo. As in all good Cinderella pantomimes the wow factor comes in the transformation scene and this pantomime was no exception, to the delight of the audience the pumpkin turned into a beautiful coach pulled by a real pony to transport Cinderella to the ball as if all by magic. The enthusiasm, comic timing and energy of the ensemble was very evident and this spilled over into the captivated audience well done to Graham Gibson, Tony Jones, Annette Morris, Dan Nelson, Jason Pickford and Naomi Skelton. I must also compliment the young chorus members Nichole Blair-Foulds, Jessica Callaway, Alicia Cook, Zora Dubre, Abaigail Jones and Kaitlyn Taylor they were excellent throughout as were the dancers Vicki Cowey, Isha Dubre, Sarah Hutchinson, Rebecca Scott, Hannah Cuthbertson, Kirsty May and Katharine Willett who complimented the performance. This pantomime was a well written and the attention to detail from the production team resulted in a production that delighted the audience well done to everyone at Dryburn Theatrical Workshop.

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