Dick Whittington

Excellent sets and set pieces are a trademark of this Society and this was no exception.  The cast led by Sarah France as Dick included a realistic disguise by Pat Cross as Alderman Fitzwarren. The Queen Rat (a change of gender) was suitably evil but brilliant in this character and oh joy!  a company of small rats all in khaki uniforms, one of them only four!  There was a feisty performance from Hayley Roche as Alice.  

I loved the cat Tom played by Rachel Spitzer, and Fairy Bowbells, Ruth Coomber, kept the action together. A good dame Dolly Dumpling who never ceases to entertain, and I thought Captain Cuttlefish (Robert Roche) and his sidekick Scupper looked and got into their parts to perfection. Wendy Simmons as Jack kept the kids in the audience shouting out for him to pull his socks up - great fun.  I loved the scene in the rowing boat, ingenious! 

A good finale scene was set in Morocco and Linda Ruby was very well made up as the Sultan, here again a very clever set.

There was a magic scene when the boat goes over when they all encounter various fishes; a super ultra violet curtain made this memorable.

On the whole I thought this was a well put together panto, the lighting was good, as were the costumes, one little crit I suppose was there was a lot of near the mark  jokes and some very rude noises  especially in the sewers with Queen Rat, but then to be fair, the kids in the audience loved them!!

Well done Needham – and congratulations on being nominated for a technical award for last year’s panto, who knows another this year!

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