Goldilocks and The Three Bears

It was lovely to be back in Probus to watch Goldilocks and the Three Bears and be joined by your enthusiastic audience. As always with your society your choice of merchandise is ideal and it was great to see many people around the hall sporting the items they had purchased. It was also interesting to see you had positioned bees around the room which were linked with the show.

The pantomime you had decided to perform this year originates as a ‘British oral folk tale, first recorded by Eleanor Mure in 1831’.  The story had been animated by Walt Disney in 1922 and 1939 and popped up as a tale or an addition tale in other productions during the years.  Many younger members of your audience might be aware of the poem Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Roald Dahl, which although includes the basic elements of porridge, chair and bed has a slightly different edge.

It was very interesting to read all the information contained within your programme. It certainly takes an enormous amount of people in all the different roles both on and off stage to ensure that a pantomime can be produced.

It must be so much more relaxed for you with your improvements on the stage to make sure all your backdrops and wipes flow easily.  It also must be inspiring for you to have a lady within your team who has the skill to sketch your backdrops so you can get them custom made. The detail on them made them personal to your village and added detail to all the scenes. Congratulations.

I would like to congratulate your director on his choice of script; it was fast moving and you had to listen carefully so you aware of the story being told.  It was full of all the usual elements of a pantomime, a dame, baddie, a hero, comedy, song and dance and a panto song with the addition of a wolf scaring cast and the honey routine.  Well done.

The lights were situated on a bar at the front of the hall with follow spots situated at the back close to the sound and lighting desks. The scenes throughout the show were lit with specific colours to emphasise sets and atmosphere but when lighting effects were used cast members at the side of the stage were in darkness.  The selected musical numbers were listed in the programme as were the altered lyrics which enabled the audience to follow. The backing tracks were set at appropriate level so the lyrics and script could be distinguished. I thought the way you had smaller groups leading vocals before the company came in added variety. The projection of the pantomime words was a good idea. As expected, the confetti cannons had the younger members of the audience collecting pieces of paper to take home as a memento.

Your choreographer came up trumps again this year. She used her skills to enhance the ability of those members involved on the stage.  When the space allowed more complex routines were delivered some with set piece endings. She was able to ensure that when the whole company were dancing together, they were well rehearsed created an overall picture. Well done.

Your costume team were again set a challenge to costume a different set of characters all well-fitting. The junior and senior chorus looked great in their dresses with mop caps and waistcoats and shirts and dungarees. Auntie Septic’s costumes were numerous and very detailed.  Goldilocks looked great in blue and white and Marge appeared through her door adorned in red and green with a teddy bear around her waist. The bee and wasp outfits were outstanding, they contained lots of additional detail and the make up especially on the Queen Bee and Wasp was brilliant.  The bears were dressed in shades of brown with fur accessories and ears on a headband. All three were made up but I did wonder if a little less would have made facial expressions more visible.  The royal woodsmen Shoppit and Splinter were dressed in were attired in brown and white with Peter Pan hats and TomTom was dressed in red and white with thigh high boots. It was great to see that you were able to find enough brown outfits for the bears and the horrific masks were amazing. The finale black and gold costumes were a lovely final image of your company. It was great to see that hair styles and footwear had been taken into account.

The first character we met was Auntie Septic the dame who was beautifully attired in various outfits suitable for the scenes. Your player created an over-the-top persona who interacted brilliantly with both the audience and all the other cast members.  She obviously cared for her niece Goldilocks and despaired of her child Marge. She believed in the efficacious TCP, delivered her gags and quips with aplomb and eventually came up with a plan to beat the Queen Bee.

Goldilocks arrived in the village carrying her basket to visit her aunt. She was depicted as a confident young lady who had her own mind and followed her own path, until she met TomTom and fell for him immediately. Her foray into the three bears home was well played with most of the expected issues. Her dialogue was well presented; she moved with confidence and sang tunefully.

The next actor on was initially concealed behind a door on wheels. When the door opened, we were introduced to Marge Auntie Septic’s daughter who explained that ‘she had brought the door because she had lost the key but had left the window open’ this statement ensured that the audience realised that she was not the sharpest knife in the block! The young lady spoke and sang confidently and knew her dance steps and took a full part in the story, her idea at the end worked well. One little point when moving forward those on stage will try their hardest to make you corpse on stage try to develop a coping strategy.

Next on stage were a small colony of well-dressed bees with a member who was attired in a slightly different costume. They explained that Kevin the wasp was ‘part of an exchange scheme learning to live in a hive’.  Queen Bee their leader was the personification of evil, she pronounced her plan and her minions were expected to follow her rules. She delivered her lines and moved around with purpose. Buzzbee, Penelobee, and Barnabee had all spent time developing their own character, spoke with deference when addressing their queen and completed their given tasks making sure the ‘Hypno Honey’ was feed to the bears this continued until the end of the show when they created their own co-operative to deliver honey. Kevin the wasp’s costume had subtle differences and he was less forthright than the others although especially when threatened. He spoke clearly, moved with ease and enjoyed helping with the panto song. The musical number the group presented together was on the button.

A woodland wipe was used with the arrival Choppit and Splinter the woodmen who were in charge of the wood, counted the trees and supervised activities within the area. Splinter was very happy with his role but Choppit would rather be a hairdresser. Their special task for the day was patrolling the wood because it was the teddy bears picnic, invitation only! After finding out about Queen Bee’s plan much discussion happened about dispatching the zombie bears with different plans suggested none of which are successful. They played the woodmen really well with clear diction, they bounced off each other and sang well with the bears.

TomTom the piper’s son resplendent in red and white arrived back from London after an unsuccessful trip to visit his Auntie Septic. TomTom had a good stance and good phraseology, ‘he’ decided to settle down with a nice girl and immediately falls for Goldilocks. Fearing for her live he races to the Three Bears Home and presented a well choreographer song and dance routine with Goldilocks then ended up impersonating a chair.  ‘His’ bravery paid off in the end when your hero defeating Queen Bee.

The final group of characters were the bears. They were well dressed Daddy Bear in shirt trousers and waistcoat, Mother in skirt, top and corset top and Baby in dungarees with a blue shirt. Daddy delivered his text and rap in a clear accent and demonstrated his leading position within the bear community with his speech. Mother had a gentler manner persuading daddy not to send for the woodmen, she spoke clearly and have a lovely singing voice. Babies first foray on stage was successful she ensured her words were heard by all the audience and sang tunefully. All three showed the scary effect of the ‘Hypno Honey’ and how well the antidote worked.

It was lovely to see you use members of your senior and junior chorus to speak occasional lines within the show, just remember to project to the back of the hall. Also, I would like to say well done to your chorus member who played the Wolf very convincing.

Any pantomime has two groups working within it those who are on stage and those who work behind the scenes who a group would be lost without. Many congratulations to you all on an excellent show.

Disclaimer 

Any observation made by the reviewer can only be based on what she sees at the performance in question.  The reviewer may have received information in advance of the performance and it is inevitable that his assessment will be affected by that knowledge. 

The NODA Representative’s intention is to give an objective critique of the overall production and in particular, the performance.  It should be remembered that any review of this nature can only be objective as far as the techniques used during the performance observed.  Any criticisms expressed may not have been valid at other performances and are only made to encourage higher standards in Amateur Theatre. 

 It is hoped that the audience’s appreciation of your efforts will have given everyone a lift and encouraged you to greater achievements in the future and that the observations made by the reviewer will prove helpful in improving future productions.

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