Dick Whittington

Unfortunately, due to a sat nav which still showed the Village Hall as being in a completely different place, I missed the opening of your pantomime. However, I arrived to find a colourful scene in progress and then followed a fun evening.

The new hall is seemingly an excellent venue and a beneficial addition for the various activities that take place there.

An attractive backcloth of a medieval street scene was in place and Dick and Alice sang the popular song ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’.

In the title role of Dick, Nikki Harish gave a good performance and her diction was excellent - every word could be heard.

Alice, the love interest in Dick’s life was played securely by Michelle Dormer and Emma Blackmore played her father Alderman Fitzwarren with clear authority. Emma’s diction was excellent.

Marianne Martin-Jones looked lovely as Fairy Belle and her Royal blue costume was very striking – she delivered her rhyming prose confidently.

As King Rat, Jamie Hogg was suitably evil and scary and his little helpers did really well – and looked cute!

Steven Brown revealed a strong acting ability and a good singing voice and he was clearly in command as The Captain.

Idle Jack’s entrance on a skateboard caused much amusement – Gina Freeman was animated and engaged the audience well in her activities.

It was good to see a youngster on stage in a principal part and as Bosun, Max Dormer shows great promise. He had quite a lot of dialogue and coped well with it.

Sarah the Cook was certainly a larger- than -life character! Chris Butler sported super costumes - I loved the Union Flag one - and he provided plenty of comedy.

I don’t know which of the girls played Tommy that evening but they performed well as Dick’s companion in his adventure.

Costumes were very good, especially the Captain and Dame’s ones. Perhaps a change of costume for the finale would have been appropriate for Alice. Wigs were fine – something less fussy would have suited Alice better.

Act Two opened strongly with ‘Comedy Tonight’ and the dancers, no mention of them in the programme that I can see, added much to the overall presentation. The ‘Dream Ballet’ at the end of Act One was delightful as was the one after the shipwreck.

There was a ‘Queen’ (?) on the desert island, no mention in the cast list, but I thought it was Michelle Dormer? She was relaxed and convincing in the role.

The ‘mop’ routine was fun, as was the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and the selection of music chosen was nicely varied.

As both Stage and Musical Director - a lot of work for one person, - Matt Davis put together a good pantomime with appealing music and provided the audience with a good evening’s entertainment.

Your programme cover is eye-catching and the amount of advertising impressive!

Thank you for inviting me to see ‘Dick Whittington – I enjoyed my first visit to a RATS production.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.