Humpty Dumpty

S.S. Simon & Jude’s Family panto Humpty Dumpty runs this year with some fresh faces for the group in the chorus and taking in principal parts.  The action takes place in the village of Over-Egginham that is until the Humpty falls off the wall and speedily uses up all his wishes given to him by the fairy. This once popular nursery rhyme visits Nursery-land, outer space and the Circus.

With a simple set to help tell the story, with star back cloth and Up-Stage Right the wall for Humpty Dumpty to sit on and fall off. The throne and backcloth for that scene. A wishing well Stage Left. Also down Stage Left the Dungeon. Scenery Design and Painting John Mulraney. Stage Team -Theo Williams, David Crank and Neil Farrell. Lighting and Sound Wayne Gibson and Sam Dickinson (WS Productions LTD), Choreographer Caitlin Owen. Wardrobe Chris Wynn & Stella Crank and help from St Philip’s. As always, costumes look fabulous.

Stella Crank directs and says in the programme notes that in 1966 it was her first stage performance. Giving youth performers a chance is what Stella is about and this relatively new to performing cast certainly looked to be having fun. As it’s live theatre I did wonder if nerves got the better of some and a few lines were dropped. At times when a large group were on stage too many people were speaking at once and I lost the thread of what was happening. If you just give each other space to breathe and hear the lines from your fellow cast members then that helps with cues. The voice over Stewart Crank who gave the countdown of wishes remaining did remind me of the Aldi voice “Till Number 1 is opening”. Hilarious. The usual water pistols were included to wet the audience and sweets and obviously chocolate eggs thrown too (I sadly didn’t get one) - not many pantos you go to when you come home with a toilet roll (yep! I missed out on that too).

The chorus were a delight and had lovely smiling faces enjoying every minute. The pantomime favourite horse Marmaduke was played by Emma Cunningham and Freya Dunn. King Egbert was played by Jeff Greenhalgh. Martha Fallows played The Boy very confidently. The comic duo was Major Mayhem played by Charlie Roberts and Reggie Mental by Janine Rennie giving a great rendition of It’s a Long Way To Tipperary and Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag. The Dame was Denise Anderson playing Ditsy an Egg Farmer and had some great costumes to wear. Her son was played by Caitlin Owen who also choreographed the production and made the audience work with participation songs. Playing Topsy’s sister Daisy was played by Melissa Williams with sass.

Jack Farrell’s first show with S.S Simon & Jude’s took on the role of Humpty Dumpty and saving the day at the eleventh hour. Princess Petal was played by Libby Kershaw - Castle on a Cloud was sung beautifully. Libby you are turning into a lovely performer, just have a little more confidence in yourself.

The villain of the show was David Crank taking on Egg-Nog, taking boo’s from the audience in his stride with his plotting, he did end up with egg on his face (see what I did there?).

Last but not least was the elegant fairy Souffle played by Caroline Williams who looked stunning in her dress and added some calm to the chaos and tried to lead Humpty Dumpty to do the right thing and thwart Egg-Nog. Lovely voice and good diction. Great work. This Production of Humpty Dumpty was in memory of Ian Dean-Boardman who had been a member of the society for over 20 years.

Thank you from my guest Nicola and I for the invitation to join you.

Liz Hume-Dawson

District 5

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