Dick Whittington

First of all, I have to say what a shame it was that you had to cancel your entire run because of the unseasonably heavy snow, we had a few weeks ago.  It was lovely to hear that you managed to rearrange, although I was quite surprised to hear that this re-arrangement was actually three performances on one day!  I really do have to take my hat off to you guys for this, not only is this the perfect example of a “the show must go on” attitude but, it also shows some real guts, three performances in one day, you must have been shattered by the end of it, although as I attended on the third performance, if you were then it definitely didn’t show.

Having visited Chardstock Village Hall a few times before, albeit not in an official capacity, I have always been impressed with the way CADS manages to get so much on to such a small stage and this production was no different.  The show opened to reveal a good 15-20 people performing the opening number and dance, regardless of the amount of bodies on the small stage, the dancers didn’t seem to stand on each other’s feet or get in each other’s way and the opening number was a joy to watch.  There didn’t seem to be much of an adult chorus in this show and the chorus roles were mostly handled by the children’s chorus (who outnumbered the adult chorus 4:1).  The children did a fantastic job of carrying songs and dances and this opening number was lovely to watch, so many young smiling faces all of whom were obviously really enjoying themselves.  All the children did well but, I did specifically notice Teigan White who, although not necessarily always in time with the others, had the biggest smile on her face throughout the opening number.  Also standing out was Sophie Alexander-Mitchell, a very talented young actress who I have been aware of for a couple of years and who I would love to see take a lead role at some point in the future.

As the play progressed, it was obvious that the scene changes were going to be few and far between, not necessarily a bad thing as it didn’t slow the production down although the staging and background cloths were not particularly inspiring.  However, the pirate ship was great and overall the quality of the staging didn’t affect the production in anyway at all.  After all, if the audience is staring at the background then you have some quite serious problems.

The band, under the direction of Nat Wilsher, were very good and produced a full sound with only three members.  It is always nice that CADS treats the band as if they are a part of the production, rather than just being there to enhance it, and there was a lot of back and forth between the cast and band, which is always fun to watch. 

The lighting and sound were handled by John Cloke, Jack Wilson and Richard Boxell and overall they did a sterling job.  It is always hard to manage sound and lighting, in such a small venue but the lighting, in particular, was of a very high quality.  Without a range of colourful and interesting backdrops to fall back on, it was mostly down to lighting to create the different scenes and a sense of ambience and this worked well, especially whenever King Rat was on.  The, obligatory, ultra violet scene also looked good.  The sound quality was ok but, there was a quiet hum of feedback throughout most of the first half, which was more than a little distracting, it was also confusing as to why some cast members had head-mics and some did not, especially as the venue is small enough to allow projection.

Kate Marshall and Jane Broom did a good job with the costumes and everyone on the stage looked as you would imagine them too.  The Dame seemed to have a reasonable selection of interesting dresses but, it would have been nice to see a few more outrageous ones.  Particularly impressive was King Rats costume but, Fairy Bowbells’ outfit seemed to be a missed opportunity, presumably this was done to make the Fairy more modern but it didn’t really work and it looked worse when the Fairy was on stage with King Rat, as this enhanced the oddness of the costume.  It was nice to see all the chorus dressed in similar clothes and overall the effect worked well, even if Alderman Fitzwarren’s apron kept falling down!

Naomi Boxell pulled double duties as Idle Jack and Make-up.  It is always hard to comment on make-up as, for me, I never really notice it unless people look as pale as Casper or as orange as an oompa-loompa!  Luckily in this production, nearly everyone fell into that nice middle ground, meaning I didn’t really notice so the make-up must have been just right.  King Rat’s make-up was very good and worked well against the greenness of his/her lighting, however what on earth was going on with the Dame’s make-up?  I know that it is traditional to make the Dame look over the top and in some cases even slightly grotesque but poor Sarah the Cook looked like a party-girl finally making their way home after a 2-day bender!  The lipstick specifically was all over the place and looked like it had been applied in the back of a truck that was going over some of Chardstock’s many potholes.

It was nice to see a pantomime that isn’t just packed with songs for the sake of padding out the plot and the few songs that were there, were all sung well and there were some lovely harmonies throughout the production.  The choreography was handled by five different people, most of them very young.  There is a saying that “Too Many Cooks, Spoil the Broth”, but not here, it was not obvious that there were so many people involved in the choreography and all the dance routines worked well with each other and were performed, on the face of it, with perfect timing.  Well done.

The script was written by Ben Crocker and was actually very good, so many pantomimes I see have poor scripts but not here.  The story was strong and the jokes were very funny.  Being brought up on a diet of Carry On Films, I particularly enjoyed all the jokes about the main characters first name which, weirdly, I have not seen in previous amateur adaptions of the pantomime.  I always think a few blue jokes or lines, that go over the children’s heads, for the adults are an important part of pantomime, even if one of the lines may have been pushing the boundaries a little.  Another part of the script which was an audience favourite, was having one of the actors play three parts.  I am not sure if this was in the script, or if this was done out of necessity due to lack of actors, but either way it was incredibly funny and an awful lot of humour was milked from the situation.

The casting for this production worked well and everyone seemed to work well together, this was evident at the performance that I came to see as it seemed that the cast were mostly doing their own thing.  Some performers are not comfortable when others around them are ad-libbing or playing to the audience, not here though, and the audience loved it.  Personally, I love to see this too and it makes you feel like you are seeing something special and if the cast are having a good time then so will the audience. 

This production had a relatively small number of principals and the first we were introduced to were Fairy Bowbells and King Rat, played by Kat Wilsher and Sarah Williamson.  Sarah made a very strong baddie and seemed to enjoy and revel in all the booing and hissing, unfortunately, the script did not give Fairy Bowbells much to do but perhaps Kat could have made a little more of what it did give her.  Although the story focussed on Dick Whittington, he was ably “assisted” by his friends Tommy the Cat, Alice Fitzwarren and Idle Jack played by Carys Boxell; Hope Mortimer and Naomi Boxell respectively.  All three played their parts well and Carys managed to get a lot out of her largely mute role, her community song was very funny and a bit different to the norm.  Both Naomi and Hope were likeable in their roles and managed to get the audience behind them with ease although, and I can only base this on the productions I have seen, it seems these two often play the same parts and it would be interesting to see them branch out into different roles.  Of course the main hero of the piece was Dick Whittington, superbly, played by Katie Richards.  Katie is a very accomplished local actor who can play these kind of leads in her sleep and what a pleasure it is to see her branching out more and now turning her hand to other areas of production, such as choreography, not only for this production but for other local companies too.  I am sure, as she gets older and even more confident, we will be hearing and seeing a lot more from this young future star.  I just hope she remembers us when she is on the West End.

Seeing Mike Spellar’s name on the cast list is always a good sign of quality as he has a very good reputation in the local area, especially for his panto performances.  However, I was very surprised to see that he wasn’t playing the dame and felt that it would be hard for another actor to do justice to this role, if Mike was also in the cast.  I was wrong, very wrong indeed, Dan Wilsher was superb as Sarah the Cook and was very natural in this role.  Dan played this role almost as if he was making everything up as he went along, who knows he may well have been, and his whole portrayal was excellent, even if his make-up was not.  However, the real star of this show had to be Mike Spellar in his three roles as Alderman Fitzwarren, Captain Horatio Fitzwarren and The Emperor of Morocco.  As usual, Mike’s performance was high-energy and often off-script but most of all incredibly funny.  Well done to all the cast.

Overall, this has to be my favourite pantomime that I have viewed as a Noda Rep, so far.  It may not have been as visually stunning as some of the pantomimes I have seen, with fancy back-drops and constantly changing sets but, it was funny; relaxed; had some risqué jokes and full of energy and it definitely, and easily, ticked every box for me.  Well done Chardstock, Jo’s loss was definitely my gain.

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