Dick Whittington

When you have an abundance of laughs, plenty of glitz, glamour and sparkle you know it has to be Manor Operatic Pantomime and this year was no different as we sat back to watch Dick Whittington.

The opening scene of London Town took us right into panto land with fabulous costumes and perfect scenery which were both befitting for this very talented company.

As we all know the town is overrun with rats and Alderman Fitzwarren played to perfection by Simon Hance,  who runs the local store with his daughter Alice played superbly by Emily Mae Hoyland, yes there was the famous Alice, Alice joke, have made up a rat poison which unfortunately has no effect on the rats in London they have therefore decided to sell it to Morocco which is also overrun with the rodents.

Enter Dick Whittington in the guise of Emma Flanagan who had the voice, acting skills and oh yes the legs to make her the right choice for this part, Dick is however feeling quite lonely but when she meets Tom, the cat played with superb skill by Liam Gordon they strike up a friendship like no other.

Dick and Tom travel to London, meet Alderman Fitzwarren and Alice and manage to get a job looking after the store plus a present for Alice’s birthday which is in the safe. All is well until King Rat enters, played extremely convincingly by Callam Fellows, poisons Tom and fakes a burglary putting the present in Dick’s bag.

Dick and Tom are sacked on the spot even though they protest their innocence.

Also working in the store is of course Dame Honey Bun, the cook and housekeeper although I doubt she knows very much about either chore. Honey Bun was played by larger than life Robert Spink, a true Dame in every sense of the title, he was perfect in every aspect of the word, bossing his lazy son, Idle Jack played with passion by James Smith, again a superb choice of actor.

Weaving in and out of the action and foiling King Rat is Fairy Bow Bells superbly brought to life by Christina Limb who was enchanting and loved by all the kids, and some of the dads in the audience.

The Alderman, Alice, Dame Honey Bun and Jack all decide to travel to Morocco to deliver the rat poison which they know does not work. They hire a ship run by some very “iffy” crew men, Captain Seasalt, Swash and Buckle, all of whom were played with ease by Gary Rossiter, Lee Stott and Chris Hanlon, each time these three entered the stage you knew they would create havoc, they were so funny my sides were splitting at every entrance.

The voyage to Morocco did not go very well and of course they were shipwrecked, here we had one of the best UV scenes I have every seen, there were dancing fish, singing oysters and two very funny turtles which reminded me of the muppets, this was superb.

Once they landed in Morocco, they were met by The Sultan played with glee by Nick Challenger, I am unsure who enjoyed his performance the more, him or the audience, he was perfect.

All of this plus a baking scene, a bucket game, an excellent ghost gag whilst in the lifeboat using a giant octopus, Tiddly Winky Woo plus great singing and dancing were the perfect ingredients resulting in an excellent evening’s entertainment.

Massive congratulations to Linda, Richard and Andy for making this work so well.

 

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