Cinderella

With all the Friends of Mundesley Lifeboat, what a great night out we enjoyed at Cinderella, with the children more than entering into the spirit of the entertainment, in fact those in the front ‘special’ rows were ahead of the script and the actors, so wrapped up in the story and totally engrossed, very noisy.

 So pleased that the return of Sheila Olley as the Norfolk Fairy (holding it all together) did not mean that the ‘learner from 2013’ was excluded, Lottie Waller is a great new young asset to the company with very clear diction and good projection. The teenage theme continued with excellent performances from Victoria Ing as Cinderella and Cerian Ellson as Prince Charming.  With looks, delivery, excellent vocals, style and personality, these two offer a good future to the Players.  Showing the experience, strong personality and style with voice and movement, who could fault the strength of the role of Dandini from Sharon Jiggins. Outshone by his stepdaughters, but sympathetic towards his daughter, Christon Sharpe made the most of Baron Hardup.

 And then we have the strength of any Mundesley pantomime in the comedy, a local script capitalised on some aspects, certainly Benidormina (Neil Ellson) and Magaloophia (Pat Nearney) had it all playing for them with the timing and the jokes, the outrageous colourful costumes and wigs, the turn of speed in beating the children to the story lines, the general outgoing of exuberance and enjoyment.   They were well supported in the comedy field by Salt (Jean Clarke) and Vinnie (Judy Ellson) and the general haplessness of their roles.  There was a good cake sequence, very messy.  And one should not forget the Herald from Dave Marshall who caused laughter in the audience by just appearing on stage, before he spoke! Very important to any pantomime, and especially to Cinderella, the Buttons role not only links the story, the character creates the empathy for the downtrodden and hopes for better for himself in the love stakes. But is the major instigator and recipient of the audience participation (often the first experience of live theatre for many children), Paul Reynolds was reliable in his timing for the ‘plant’, his humour and timing, really well cast in playing this role.
 Lovely colourful sets and costumes, good chorus singing and movement with lots of children being introduced to the joys of performing, certainly this was an entertaining evening brought together by Ian Cashmore. And with a sell-out week, hopefully lots of money towards the lifeboat.
 

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