Jack and the Beanstalk

It was a great pleasure to see Chester le Street Theatre Group Junior Section performing a show in their own right again, this small but talented cast of 17 young people gave their audience a thoroughly entertaining evening.

With the experience of Julie and Chinami at the helm the young people were bound to experience an enjoyable production and it was lovely to see a young member taking on the choreography, well done Amy, you did an excellent job. The script by Reece was just right for the young performers and gave them plenty of opportunity to shine. The set was simple but worked to good effect and the sound was good and clear. The musical accompaniment from piano and drums never overpowered the performers, the singing was lovely and there were some beautiful harmonies.

The comedy leads in panto aren’t easy roles to play, to have the confidence to interact with your audience and keep up the energy and pace are skills few possess but the comedy was in the safe hands of Anya Siou as Joey and Caisley Graham as Betty Barnum Trott. Both of these young actors oozed confidence and stage presence, well done to Caisley for her costume making too! Alex Rochester gave us a loveable portrayal of Jack Trott and Lily Langers portrayed a sweet Jill, both doing really well with their characterisation.  As the grumpy Squire Greedy Guts Eleanor Adamson was able to portray the change in this character from grouchy and mean to loveable and kind. Every panto needs the opposing forces of good and evil and this one had confident portrayals of these characters. Isla Baker as Fairy Beansprout looked the part and also had good clear diction, her opposition was in the form of Slug Slime portrayed by Luke Rochester who gave an excellent performance and was especially good at managing the audience interaction. There were good performances in the cameo roles of Mrs Rington played by Cara Moody and the amazing dancing Daisy played by Rickie Mullen and Molly Roberts, the routine with the bucket was very funny. It was also great to hear the bellowing tones of Bill Stephenson providing the perfect voice to Giant Blunderbore! The ensemble sang, danced and acted well throughout and had lovely smiles!

It was clear for the audience to see that this company worked well together and were supportive of each other. Congratulations to Julie, Chinami, Amy, the rest of the production team and cast for putting together such an enjoyable start to the festive season.

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