Dick Whittington

After a two-year enforced break, ODS were back with their first panto at their now established new venue of  Hartlebury Parish Hall. New members had been introduced to the team and it was obvious that they had all been working hard during recent months in preparing for “Dick Whittington”, under the directorship of David Goode.

Lizzy Waterhouse warmly opened the action as the ‘Spirit of London’ in traditional panto style, soon to be joined by Tom Oliver as the evil ‘King Rat’, tall and imposing in search of the map to buried treasure. The map belonged to ‘Alderman Fitzwarren’ played convincingly by Hugh Raymer who maintained a strong performance throughout.  ‘Dick’ (Lucy Middleton) with his feline accomplice ‘Tiddles’ (Sophie Williams) worked well together and ‘Alice’ (Alisha Morgan-James) gave a bright and well- spoken performance. Lucy and Alisha sang well with great presence and I liked their duet ‘Make you feel my love’ by Adele.

Just about everyone contributed to an almost continuous stream of corny jokes to exercise the chuckle muscles, none less than David Vas and Alex Fitzgerald as ‘Dame Sarah’ and ‘Barrow Boy Billy’ respectively. The fact that they and the rest of the cast were enjoying themselves, the noisey responses from the audience were mutually infectious.

Good support too from King Rat’s sidekicks ‘Nip and Tuck’ (Kathy Othen and Ruth Hammond) along with six young members of his rat army, who moved well to Kirsty Purvis’ choreography. The chorus of townspeople and pirates brought a rousing opening number ‘The Lambeth Walk’ and concluded Act 1 with ‘In the Navy’.

In Act 2 we meet ‘Captain Long John Tinfoil’ (Jacci Phillips) who gave us a confident performance as the suitably shifty pirate. When it comes to traditional panto, you can’t beat the ghost (Bernadette Phillips) scene for anticipating the action and the audience reaction which works.

The cast were accompanied by piano and drums which was just right and a great job had been done with the set and the costumes. With very little room side stage, entrances and exits were well handled.

Historically ODS normally perform a panto every other year, but I feel they might consider one every year? One thing I can be sure of, is their usual warm welcome and I look forward to their next production in May.

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