Jack and the Beanstalk

Silverdale Village Players proudly inform us that they are celebrating their centenary in 2022, with a planned programme of musical, dramatic and social events over the next 12 months. Their first offering for this year was the homewritten pantomime telling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

I'm sure I don't need to go into the story in too much detail, so here is a brief description *spoiler alerts ahead*.

Jack's family are poor and need to sell their pet cow to survive. Jack sells said cow for beans, beans get thrown out, a beanstalk grows, Jack climbs beanstalk, breaks and enters into the giant's castle, steals some stuff, gets rich, kills poor old giant or rehabilitates (depending on the version) then lives happily never after off his ill-gotten means, proving that crime does indeed pay if stealing poultry.... or maybe I've misinterpreted the story.

The role of Jack was played by Rosie Shone, who didn't just shine, she carried the role really well. Gemma Barks played the role of Ben Dover, Jack's brother- constantly keeping  the audience involved and engaging throughout. 

Jack's love interest, Jill, was more than capably played by Amelia Knox.

If I was to list all the performers who played their roles really well, I would just be printing off the cast list from the programme. Needless to say, everyone up on stage deserved their place up there.

A pantomime isn't a great pantomime without a great dame. This was indeed a great pantomime. John Auckland's dame, Eileen Dover was every inch the panto dame, delivering his lines, whether written or ad-libbed to perfection.

All numbers and dances were performed  with conviction and the whole show delivered at a blistering pace.

Staging was effective throughout, and made great use of the venue.

The pantomime itself was written for locals by locals with many a local reference to people thrown in for good measure.

The show was written, directed and choreographed (with the assistance of Amelia Knox) by Rachael Shone.

Rachael should be really proud of what she and the Silverdale Village Players achieved with this production- with Rachael Shone at the helm, Silverdale Village Players shine.

This was a great start to their new year, and I wish them success for their centenary.

Thank you, Silverdale for your invitation and hospitality.

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