Dick Whittington

Having spent many years appearing in panto myself, it was a pleasure to be able to relax in the audience and watch Bacup Royal Court Theatre’s pantomime Dick Whittington.

Bacup have a long-standing reputation for successful pantomimes and if the audience reaction on the night was anything to go by then I would say that this production has continued that tradition. Usually, auditioning adults from within BAODS play many of the main roles with some of the older children from BESTS and BYTES doing the smaller walk on roles. Director James Jeremiah-Goulding cast three of his main characters from one of Bacup’s youth societies BYTES. It was great to see the up-and-coming talent that Bacup is nurturing stepping up.

Emily Chaplin stepped up from BYTES to play the titular role of Dick Whittington. Emily tackled the role with gusto, she used the stage to its full capacity, moving confidently and securing her place amongst the adult cast members. Emily did not miss a beat, delivering clear strong dialogue, if she was nervous at all, it certainly did not show. Cerys Pearson, also from BYTES, played Dick’s love interest Alice Fitzwarren. I particularly liked the way Cerys played this role as the petulant foot stomping daughter. Spoilt and taken to having the occasional hissy fit, Cerys’ comic timing was impressive, and she had some lovely songs, I particularly liked the duet between her and Emily. Charlotte Ferris, the third member from BYTES played Tommy the Cat. Charlotte had no dialogue, this role being silent, but that did not stop her from making it as big as possible. Whenever she was on the stage she was moving constantly, her attention to how a cat moves and her reactions to the dialogue happening around her was splendid.

This year, Stephen Woods stepped into the role of the Dame - Sarah the Cook. Quick witted and very funny Stephen had the audience in stitches. A physically demanding role, the Dame must tread the thin line between acceptable dialogue and cheeky inuendo, whilst quite often throwing themselves around on stage. Stephen created a dame who was agile, friendly, flirty, and quick with a retort if interacting with the audience. A firm favourite with the audience, Sarah the Cook was larger than life in all the right ways.

Sarah the Cook’s layabout son, Idle Jack was played by Joshua-Callum Rawlinson. With a cherubic grin and a twinkle in his eye, Joshua provided great comic moments throughout the show. The audience instantly warmed to his catch phrase, ‘Hiya Jack!’ with little voices ringing out whenever he came on. I liked the baking scene between Idle Jack and Sarah the Cook. It was a silly, messy affair, much to the delight of the children. My inner child loves a custard pie in the face joke. (sorry clean up crew)

Rebecca Ashworth playing the role of Queen Rat, opened the show. Rebecca’s malevolent voice rang through the theatre speakers before she stepped through the smoke looking every inch the evil rat she was playing. Lit in sinister greens, dressed in black, complete with a prosthetic rat nose, she sneered at the audience. The children loved it, instantly starting to boo. Rebecca gave a commanding performance, dominating the stage whenever she was on. You could tell that she relished her role as her evil laugh got bigger and longer the more the crowd booed.

 Fairy of the Bells played by Sara Smallman, burst on the stage dressed in a veritable riot of colour. Sara’s effervescence and cheeky demeanour instantly endeared the audience to her. Traditionally the fairy character is a panto favourite, its easy to see why, Sara gave an impressive performance that was bright and bubbly, sweet and sassy.

Gill Richardson played Alderman Fitzwarren - Alice’s father. When Gill stepped through the door of her ‘shop’ complete with bushy eyebrows, sideburns, moustache, flat cap, suited and booted with a strong northern accent, I for one could not stop laughing. Gill provided a strong character performance.

 As the curtain raised for Act 2, a ship deck complete with rigging and ship wheel was revealed. Gill performed the Wellerman song with the cast and chorus, I have to say it took me a moment to realise that it was Gill leading the song, so deep was her voice. The answer and response form of the song worked very well. The scene was a visual spectacle with the chorus dressed in red and white stripes reminiscent of the pirates from Peter Pan. This was one of my favourite scenes in the panto.

Daniel James Starkie played Onion and Gary Waugh played Garlic, Queen Rat’s minions. This comedy double act had the children squirming in their seats as they made their way through the auditorium at the start of the show. Daniel played the less idiotic of the two idiots with his cheeky one liners, whilst Gary had a constant look of bemusement as the story played out in front of him. You could see the camaraderie between Daniel and Gary which added to their performances. Comical and silly, classic goons.

Gary Haworth and Julie Stanworth gave us a cameo performance as the King and Queen of Spain they entered with all due pomp and although they had little dialogue, they both made their presence known. Gemma Ferris as the Spanish Chamberlain made the most of her cameo role by sitting on and falling off the smallest stool possible which garnered much laughter from the audience.

The chorus, comprising of members from BAODS, the adult society and BESTS and BYTES the two youth societies sounded vocally strong, with some seriously sweet soprano notes coming from the stage, especially during ELO’s Mr Blue Sky.

Rachael O’Hara was Assistant Director and Choreographer for the chorus numbers. Dance routines were slick and well organised, she had obviously rehearsed them well. With smiling faces and much enthusiasm, the chorus gave it their all.

Dansworks provided two main dance routines throughout the show. These were colourful, well-choreographed and very lively. With smiling faces and much enthusiasm, the dance routines slotted nicely into the storyline and gave the main cast a minute or two between scenes.

The set design by Paul Ashworth and his team was simple yet effective, with slick and unobtrusive scene changes. Cloths were used to add another dimension to the stage, a simple yet effective way to divert from stage crew moving set around.

The lighting by Andy Holden was sympathetic to the scenes, with moody lighting following Queen Rat, the use of follow spots on main characters where required. There were no missed lighting cues or delays in the lights coming up. The sound was clear and stayed at a level where singing could be heard easily over the music. I saw no technical gremlins.

Costumes were bright and exciting, in keeping with the scenes being played out. All except for the rat minions who looked as they should, dark and dingy, shabby, and ratty (if you’ll excuse the pun!)

It was obvious that Director, James Jeremiah-Goulding and Rachael O’Hara, Assistant Director, had worked hard and for extensive periods with their cast and crew. The show was slick, funny, colourful, and exciting, it was great to see all three societies within Bacup Royal Court Theatre coming together once again for panto.

I would like to say a final thank you to Cath Moran, front of house for the warm welcome, thank you to Lauren Moran for escorting us to our seats and to Nick Daye for looking after us during the interval.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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