Dick Whittington and his Cat

Following their success at the Cambridge Drama Festival earlier in the year, Clavering Players were in high spirits for their latest pantomime production, the adventures of Dick Whittington and his Cat, adapted and directed by Jennifer Scott-Reid.

This was a fun-filled family panto, with all the essential ingredients.  The obvious enthusiasm and confidence of the cast was evident from the start, with both principals and chorus capturing and retaining the audience's attention throughout the performance.

Amongst the talented principals, there were some excellent characterisations of our panto heroes and villains.  In a larger-than-life performance, Dean Kiely as pantomime dame Doris Fitzwarren, wowed us with a different and more eccentric frock for every appearance on stage! Neil Bird was suitably chilling and menacing as King Rat, thwarted, however, in his attempts to steal the closely-guarded treasure map by his bungling assistants Nip and Tuck, well-played here by Sue Grant and Teresa Hennessy, their antics and comical facial expressions keeping the audience well entertained!  Young Megan Kiely gave a very confident performance as our hero Dick Whittington, with good stage presence, clear diction and a delightful singing voice. As Dick's cat, Neville, Hattie Cooke almost stole the show - another young performer with obvious talent.  Nice performances, too, from Evie Wood as Dame Fitzwarren's daughter Alice, who captures Dick's heart, and Emma Foster as her lazy sister Jackie.

Completing the line-up were Jean Schofield, as Fairy Liquid, dispensing her magic with cleverly devised dialogue in Cockney rhyming slang - a novel interpretation; Charlotte Foster as Captain Bluebeard, who's also trying to find the buried treasure and re-claim it, and Tommy Downham, as the Town Crier, also doubling-up as the gorilla in the traditional panto "he's behind you" scene on the treasure island, where the heroes and villains are ship-wrecked during their adventures!

The principals were supported by a well-rehearsed chorus of townsfolk, rats and pirates, who all seemed to be enjoying themselves, although some of the younger ones were concentrating so hard on their movements that they sometimes forgot to smile!

Just as important in any good production is the support from the back-stage crew.  In this instance, the stage management team of Clare Anstead, Ken Kemp and Keith Nuttall had provided good scenic effects, which added much to the visual overall effect, together with a colourful and authentic character costume plot devised by Jennifer Scott-Reid.  Lesley Talbot, Mark Anstead and Nicholas Turner provided the lighting and sound effects, which were mostly spot-on and swift scene changes helped keep the pace upbeat throughout.  Well-cued backing tracks provided the music for the suitable selection of chorus and solo musical numbers which interspersed the proceedings.

Thank you, Clavering Players, for an enjoyable evening's entertainment.

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