Hansel and Gretel

To take a company of over sixty youths through their paces and a achieve such a spectacular result is without doubt a massive reason to celebrate. This company have gone from strength to strength under the superb directorship of a very supportive and willing team of adults. They have put in hundreds of volunteer hours to find funding to upgrade their venue, perfectly utilising an old school stage, building a formidable wardrobe and coaching a huge amount of enthusiastic youngsters towards their dreams of taking to the stage. This year’s pantomime extravaganza had the right balance of comedy, pathos, music and dancing to keep the audience totally captivated. The opening feud of Bluebell (Kayla Aitchison) and Nightshade (Max McNeil), both superbly oversee the good and bad in pantomime, by setting  the scene and playing a strong role throughout. The lively opening village scene of Munchen Luncheon was beautifully costumed and introduced us to three very strong characters, portrayed by Kenny Combe, Rosie Mitchell and Paige Hawrylewicz in the guise of Fritz, Hildegarde and Heather, the latter becoming Prince Johann’s love interest and a role perfectly suited to the young Monty McNeil. They were both vocally attuned and totally comfortable in their partnership.  Wally (Rose McTavish) gave a superb, larger than life performance, proving that her “gimme five!” never missed an audience reaction and she also proved to be a pretty cool mover. The title characters of Hansel and Gretel were not only cute but acted and sung to a standard way beyond their years. Quite obviously senior stars of the future. The posh Basil (Sebastian Aitchison) and partner Nut-Meg (Alisha Coolidge) worked really well together featuring in the great Jungle Book favourite ‘I wanna be like you’. The woodland scene of nymphs and animals feature well in colour and movement as did the spectacular first Act finale, Join The Circus. An immense scene to choreograph which included clowns, acrobats, dancers, magicians, jugglers, cheerleaders and cowboys and indians. Imagine that! Quite a spectacle. Peggy Pumpernickel (Campbell McNeil) held his own as the colourful dame, achieving hilarious interaction with the audience, especially the kids, giving a star performance throughout. The excited screams from the engaged youngsters as the big bad wolf (Josh Campion) chased his victims around the stage, could have been heard at the other end of Eyemouth. Special commendation to Nightshade and the two accomplices Russell and Sheryl Crow, (Mack Blackie and Abi O’Neill) for their rendition of the favourite number from Bugsy Malone, ‘We Could Have Been Anything We Wanted to Be’.  Clown (Aaron Allan) took centre stage with his solo spotlight, chasing the alluding white dot, to the enthralled audience. A lovely touch.  Klaus (Sonny Cowe-Lough),Wolfgang (Mason Skene) and Otto (Leah Turkington) all gave strong performances with a special mention for the company’s main singer who led the spectacular and beautifully costumed finale to ‘From Now On’ from The Greatest Showman. To tapping feet and audience participation the whole show concluded with rousing applause. Huge congratulations to everyone involved! 

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