Dick Whittington

St Paul’s Players’ Pantomime Dick Whittington as you enter the auditorium has a large projection of said name on the curtains - very effective.

Director Graham Cohen and Assistant Director Dax Owen take us on Dick Whittington’s journey to become Lord Mayor of London, which had half a ship coming off stage left called The Black Pearl, the Fitzwarren shop scene, onboard deck and the sewers - the Stage Crew were kept busy: Steve Pilkington, Barry Heeks, Vincent Taylor, Richard Houghton, Paul Stanley, Alan Leyland, Jamie Flavell, Steve Blundell and Richard Cornes. Scenic Artist - Howard Bates;  Stage Manager - Jill Heeks.

While there were some feedback issues with mic’s, it did not deter them and the echo in the sewers was effective. Sound by Joanne Sweet and Natalie Sweet. Lighting was good and I like the moving gobo for the storm scene. Lighting by Stuart Naylor.

Choreography was by Lorraine Brown, assisted by Kate Davies and dance captain Mae Upton. With two teams senior and junior they looked splendid in their costumes and added the sparkle you need in a panto. Great to see the boys too. Lovely.

Enter stage right Fairy Bowbells played by Jane McQueen with great voice and enter stage left Queen Rat played by Siobhan Edge who reminded me of The Bird Lady in Mary Poppins but with Rats. Loved the Rats Times joke. Alderman Fitzwarren was played by David Greenfield and Captain Cuttlefish played by Judith Armstrong. The title role of Dick Whittington was played by Meredith Atherton who had a lovely singing voice. 

Jacqui Brian played a very glamorous Sultana. Leanne Rodney was Scupper who was the fall guy for the jokes and incidentally one of the five that did On the Twelve Days of Christmas but with the words On The Twelfth Day of Training the Trainer Trained Me - very funny! Great props by Becca Hilton.

Gareth Mabon was Idle Jack who came through the audience with a cabbage on a lead (he thought it was a cauli!) His rapport with the audience was good and we had to shout “Jack pull your socks up!” every time he came on (as he had of course every time rolled them down when going off stage). He was a great foil for Dax Owen who played Dolly Dimple and was also Assistant Director. They were in competition as to whom the audience remembered to shout out to. For Dolly Dimple we had to shout out “show us your dumplings, Dolly!” and woe betide you if you didn’t – hilarious! His facial expressions were fab. He would just walk off stage and re-enter for the audience to say the line (I think I was actually a little scared). One poor audience member was made to do the sing-a-long actions on his own - so funny! I don’t think I have ever seen such a sarcastic, laid-back Dame before. Incidentally, Dax’s name had been missed out in the programme and boy did he milk it - great gag! Accident or deliberate ploy? - well played!

Alice (and yes, they did the ‘who the. . .?’ joke) was played by Eadie Gosling who was a delight and the full package of singing, dancing and acting - well done! Tommy the Talking Cat was played by Ebony Williams-Goodman - great casting and well suited to the role of the cheeky cat that saves the day with great moves and voice – purr-fect cat-itude!

Thank you for making my guest Matthew and I feel so welcome and for the hospitality.

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