Dick Whittington

The audience for this panto, made up mainly of Scouts, Clubs, Brownies, Guides and Rangers really enjoyed this panto and so did I. Fun and laughter could be heard from Sutton Arts as Emily Armstrong’s and Dexter Whitehead’s panto hit town.

We were welcomed to the production by Phebe Jackson as Fairy Bowbells and this year we were treated to her lovely singing voice.  A joy to listen to.  Her alter ego, who gave an outstanding performance, was Robbie Newton as King Rat.  No matter how he was booed he just revelled in it.   Dick Whittington was played by Tim Benjamin who sang and acted well, and, his love interest was Sophie McCoy as Alice Fitzwarren, another fine actress.  They were joined by Izzy Beardsmore as Tomatoes the Cat.  Played with convection. 

We had three really good comedy roles in this production.  One played by Ameila Farrelly as Silly Sally, who sleeps a lot.  Also playing comedy roles were Mark Natrass and James Hutt as Bottle and Sack.  They had a lot of jobs along the way.  Good support came from Peter Dent as alderman Fitzwarren together with Ashley Laight and Suzy Donnelly.  Paul Atkins played a very convincing Dame with lots of bad jobs but some very bright costumes.    Behind all of the principals were had a good chorus who played their roles well. 

Lighting, sound and the set were good.  I enjoyed the underwater scene which made full use of the projectors.  Costumes looked good.Sometimes the music was a bit over powering and drowned out some of the voices but this did not distract two much from a wonderful evening’s entertainment.

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