Dick Whittington

In this seasonal offering, Walkerville impressed.  All the traditional aspects of a pantomime were there along with catchy songs, grotesque dame, evil and good entities, and slapstick. Add to this the very impressive backcloths, crisp sound, and music provided by a duo of Peter Forster and Peter Allsop, and we had an amusing evening’s entertainment.

Fairy Bow-Bells (Helen Richardson) with her rhyming couplets was the ‘ying’ to her real life husband Ken Richardson’s ‘yang’ as he slimed his way through the role of King Rat superbly, getting many ‘boos’ from children and their slightly more mature counterparts in the audience alike.  Any good ‘villain’ needs equally villainous ‘henchmen’ and these were provided by three adult ‘rodents’, Gnawbone, Gnashfang and Gnash (Jan Boothroyd, Jenny Boothroyd and Katy Ross respectively)

In Alan Tomkins the society had a well-played ‘Dame’ – Sarah the Cook as (s)he engaged the audience and frustrated her fellow protagonists such as David Parrack, in the role of Captain Cuttie, the captain of the good ship Lollipop.  Providing humour with a Geordie twist was John Ord as ‘Idle Jack’ and ‘Sarah’ and ‘Jack’ together provided many of the laughs.

The love interest was provided by ‘Alice Fitzwarren’ and ‘Dick Whittington’, sung and acted well by Sharon Gauld and Lisa Givens respectively.  There was great chemistry between the two characters which added to their performances. Tommy the Cat was played by Sandra Laurie and, although the role was silent, Sandra managed to convey all her actions without confusion up to and beyond her ridding the land of rats.

Other characters of Ald. Fitzwarren, King Neptune and the Sultan of Morocco (Brian Harland, Michael Roche and Mark Taylor) completed the cast, adding to the storyline along with a stirring chorus of Londoners, Sailors, children etc. and sending the audience home happy.

Well done.

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