Dick Whittington and his Cat

This was my penultimate of sixteen pantos seen this season and it certainly didn’t disappoint. The very impressive venue was ideally suited to house the simple but effective set. Most people know the story of Dick Whittington but this script and the ease and confidence of the cast added many welcome embellishments along the way.

It was clearly apparent that this was the traditional family panto as it seemed the whole cast knew the whole audience and vice versa and much banter was evident (as well as the expected corny jokes) between the audience and the ‘Sarah the Cook’ (the Dame) played in affable manner by Lee Rodgers.
The good vs evil ‘battle’ was fulfilled by Liz Taylorson as ‘Fairy Bowbells’ who delivered her lines in expected verse whilst showing her character’s contempt towards her evil opponent, ‘King Rat’, whose utter loathing for all his fellow panto compatriots and audience was evident throughout in a role very well played by George Collings.

‘Idle Jack’ (the traditional ‘daft lad’) was played with ease by Hannah Barker and the ‘family atmosphere’ was again evident judging by the retorts coming from her real life grand-dad in the audience during her poor treatment by King Rat and ‘Alderman Fitzwarren’ – played confidently by Andrew Howard.

‘Captain Horatio Fitzwarren’, the captain of the ship Dick escapes on was played by Elaine Brettle looking every inch the ‘old sea dog’ whilst his niece, Alice Fitzwarren, was sweetly played and sang by Eve Smith acting as love interest for ‘Dick Whittington’ the ‘thigh slapping’ principal boy, performed very well by Fiona Rice.

Shipwrecked - the panto protagonists end up captured by the ‘Empress of Morocco’ (Sylvia Kerr Morgan) whose idea of amusement was a ‘good execution’ every morning. Eventually the day is saved by Dick’s ‘Cat’ ridding the country of rats. ‘Cat’ was a role shared by two youngsters, Daniel Taylorson and (on the performance I saw) Amelia Farrell-Gilbey. Amelia stole the show by her fine non-verbal acting and facial expressions belying a superior feline intelligence.

A fine chorus of villagers, guards, and Ratlings enhanced this good example of all the panto ingredients.
Well done Nunthorpe Players.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.