Hansel and Gretel

What an absolute pleasure it was to finally visit St Augustine’s Repertory Society for their annual pantomime and this Society really represents a lot of what lies at the heart of NODA and amateur societies. A great community group with multiple members of families and friends involved, from a family including Front of House, Director and Lead Role to another young actor whose mum was also playing trumpet in the band. Sometimes you need to stand back and say – yep this is what this is for.

The STARS venue, the Parish Centre is a great setting for a Panto with the sold out audience filling the room and a perfect stage, well lit and decorated making the perfect base for this Alan Frayn script of Hansel and Gretel.

Knowing the story but having never seen it in Panto before it was really cleverly adapted to include the main components and the audience certainly warmed to the comedy throughout.

The show opened with Bluebell (the Good Fairy) and Nightshade (The Wicked Witch) in a clever prologue setting down the foundations of the story – their battles would continue throughout the show and Scarlett Springhall made a lovely Bluebell, her rhyming verses were clear and elegant -  a sharp contrast to the viscous tongue of Nightshade played by the fabulous Sam Wright who really made the baddy role her own. She managed to gain the audience’s disapproval instantly and had the right mix of wit and backchat just what the show needed.

The pair of them also showed off their lovely vocals, from Scarlett’s pitch perfect and tender Not While I’m Around to a catchy duet and then Sam’s solo which demonstrated her range and power.

Every baddy needs a sidekick and her Crows, Alfie Webster and Lily Bowman brought some great energy to the scenes as Russel and Sheryl!  There were a lot of cameo roles throughout this show such is the story, and each was very well played by this cast, standout performers included Evangeline Wright as foraging hippy Nutmeg and her sidekick Basil played by Melany McNiff, Hansel and Gretel’s Dad was well played by Damian Wynne as the hen-pecked and completely incompetent parent being terrorized by the deliciously grotesque Hildegard, played with a glare and frown by Carol Keen. The Chorus was packed with talent of all ages and experience and each of them gave their little moment in the spotlight everything they had.

Iain Pearson had the exhausting role of playing Wally, the idiotic clown of the show. He had a wonderful innocence about him and had lovely timing with his cheap gags and one-liners. I was particularly impressed with the audience participation number where despite a slightly quiet audience soon had us roused from our seats. His scenes with his Mum, Peggy Pumpernickel kept the pace of the show moving and they provided a lot of the slapstick and traditional Panto moments in this production. Alan Anderson in the Dame role gave us a very Dry and sarcastic interpretation of this character but this worked well throughout, ps don’t mention her knockers!!

Aine Rochester and Eliza Voss were perfectly cast as the title characters Hansel and Gretel with just the perfect mix of cheek, innocence, and spark about them to make the characters believable. Both have got lovely singing voices and great stage presence and have very bright futures on the stage.

Of course every Panto needs the love interest and this was supplied by Prince Johann, played with a lovely swagger and arrogance by Rebecca Jowatt  - there was a great connection between the prince and Heather, played by the highly impressive Catherine Frank. A truly loveable character on stage, this actress wowed us with her dancing, vocal range and line delivery.

Not only did Catherine play a key role she also choreographed the show and despite a compact stage full of a real mixture of age groups – the numbers were matched perfectly to their ability and worked in great sync, from a lively Get Back Up Again to a rousing Join The Circus which gave the perfect platform for Joshua Ashton as the Ringmaster to show off a sensational voice – Wow! The vocal performance of the night.

The music throughout was really well chosen and matched the story well without overwhelming the performers and huge praise must go to the technical and costume team behind the scenes – the show looked splendid and every prop or scene change was handled incredibly well.

Director Adrian Frank deserves huge praise for pulling all this together with a great team around him, the show moved along well and the audience clearly had a lovely evening. On the night I was there he also stood in as Musical Director for the evening which again emphasizes just how much everyone pulls together in this Society.

From Clair and myself, thank you for a lovely evening of entertainment and for such a warm and friendly welcome. I look forward to many more shows in the future and seeing what this exciting young group of performers has up their sleeve next time!

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