Dick Whittington saves the London Olympics

Each Pantomime from this Company is written by a member of the group and tailored for those who wish to participate, often resulting in a young cast, who are always brilliantly supported by more experienced members.  The tale of Dick Whittington is set in 1812 and all of London is getting ready to host the Olympic Games.  Sir Alan Fitzwarren has invested a great deal of money in the Games and hopes they will be a success.  Dick and the extremely clever Tom Cat arrive in London and meet Idle Jack, a budding stand-up comedian, who all go on to become Sir Alan’s apprentices.  They try to overcome the attempts of King Rat and his gang to overrun the city and ruin the games.  As always with this company, the set was very carefully designed to allow maximum acting space on this very small stage, it was solidly built and well painted, with lovely transformations from outside the Fitzwarren house, to the kitchen, and to King Rat’s lair.  There was a basic set, which with careful lighting and additional accessories created the various locations; all the scene changes were well covered by front of tabs action.  The cast made several entrances and exits through the auditorium to clear the stage quickly, each time the dialogue was maintained and could be heard at all times.   Costumes and make-up had all been well designed and added to the overall picture.  The music used was all taped and occasionally the singers were not totally in time but recovered well, the singing on the whole was good and the backing tracks not too loud.  Young Idle Jack, handled the difficult job of opening the show and getting the audience into the right mood very well.  Fairy Bow Bells put the characters into a good frieze and then introduced them all, and continued to protect them, as a ’good fairy’ should.  Alice Fitzwarren was suitably feisty and worked well with Dick and Jack.  The battle between kitchen goddess Nigella the Cook (the dame) and Hilda the Housekeeper, with her Scottish accent and tartan Tam O’ Shanter, to gain the affection of Sir Alan was fun.  Laura the Laundry Maid and Kitty the Kitchen Maid were excellent as the comic duo.  When King Rat appeared with his gang, it was reminiscent of Fagin’s lair, with King Rat encouraging the youngsters to be up to no good.  All the young rats performed to their abilities, with Whiskers as their leader taking charge.  The Rat Dancers were a bit shy but enjoyed their routine.  Malice the Evil Inventor had been provided with gadgets galore to help King Rat put a stop to the Games.  There was some suitable ad libbing and the cast handled the heckling from the audience very well.  The inclusion of the Masterchef scene was good with an excellent disembodied female voice describing the dishes, with ‘Greg Collis and Jim Corrode’ judging them.  This was a very entertaining Pantomime, performed by the community for the community.  It had been written to appeal to all ages and was extremely topical with a ’Cat Nav’ to help them find the way, Sir Alan (Sugar) Fitzwarren, Nigella with a Hairy Biker’s Cook Book, and what trip to the Olympics would be complete without an appearance by Bradley Wiggins!  Director, Clive Roberts, had obviously enjoyed writing his script, putting an up to date slant on an old story, and he had worked hard with his cast who all looked confident and happy.  Well done everyone, it was a most enjoyable evening. 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.