Dick Whittington

Dick Whittington is a well known traditional pantomime with easily recognisable characters. WAMDS portrayal of this classic tale brought a refreshing new kind of energy to the story. The set was fairly simple and quite minimalistic with a static doorway on the "goodies" side of the stage, interchangeable pieces carried on allowed the scenes to alter and the story to travel. A star curtain was put to good use throughout and created some lovely atmosphere, curtain tabs and a rostrum were also used to create depth and height on the relatively small stage area. The lighting was sympathetic to the scenes, sound had a few little gremlins on cue points, but they did not detract from the audiences evident enjoyment.

King Rat was ably played by Martin Kelly, unfortunately Martin was suffering with considerable voice loss but this gave his voice a delicious baddie style rasp, although at times it was difficult to hear his actual dialogue he did compensate for this by giving us a full performance and used his whole self to portray his intent and inner badness to the audience. His goodie counterbalance (Fairy) was played by Alison Hasler, she was a great hit with the children in the audience especially when she had to walk through them for some of the scenes, she delivered a pleasant vocal and made a nice connection with the audience.

Annabelle Taylor was beautifully cast as Caroline Fitzwarren, she delivered some very strong vocals, great face, dialogue was clear with good enunciation and she kept the pace of the story moving well. Her love interest Dick Whittington was played by Ben Maguire, he also gave some clear dialogue, used his stage space well, let Annabelle lead him in their choreography and had a good connection with the audience. He had some great on stage chemistry with his cat Tommy played by Lauren Bates. She did a good job in her skin character role and portrayed many cat like characteristics, she used pitch and tone well in her "Mieow" delivery to indicate her mood. Chris Addington as Sarah the Cook and Michael Thompson as Idle Jack we're a great comedic combination, the audience loved them and they too kept great pace throughout the show without rushing. They both showed some exquisite comedy timing and were fully committed to their characters, they were also both very capable of scene stealing but were very generous to the other cast members on stage with them.

Andy Hall played two roles in this pantomime - Alderman Fitzwarren and his twin brother Horatio Fitzwarren, they were cleverly portrayed and he delivered a good, solid performance. Angela Mayall played the Empress of Egypt, she delivered some clear dialogue, but I would have liked to have seen a little bit more light and shade especially during her song, I suspect she was concentrating on getting her vocals and choreography in and thinking ahead. 

The costumes were of a high standard and fully fitted in with the piece. The chorus were incredibly hard working and looked very well drilled, choreography by Emma Bradburn and Georgia Taylor was fresh, exciting and innovative. It was all very appropriate to the songs and scenes and had clearly been well taught, all moves were concise and executed well, the chorus looked happy while performing. The rat number "Anything We Wanted To Be " (from Bugsy Malone) was a stand out for me.

Well done, everyone. Thank you for your hospitality towards myself and my guest. I look forward to seeing you all again very soon.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.