Jack and the Beanstalk

The second thing you experience when attending a Westovians production is the care the group has taken in ‘dressing’ the auditorium – the first thing you experience is the ‘buzz’ of the audience anticipating a great show.
The audience weren’t shortchanged in their anticipation and the auditorium was ‘dressed’ in a gigantic beanstalk running the full length of the venue where eventually Jack would travel along to meet the ‘giant’.

The production team of Caroline, Rhys and Lisa had assembled a cast who would do justice to the expectations of the audience and the audience took them to their hearts for a wonderful example of the genre.

The pantomime had all the elements expected of a pantomime, all the etiquette of good panto were observed, and the audience played their parts of shouting back at the cast when appropriate (including one man who seemed as though he was always a ‘beat’ behind everyone else in his ‘on yes he is’ retorts to much hilarity – and possibly consternation of cast).

The theme seemed as though it were ‘green’ – as in green (vegetables) rather than green (environmental) hence the first person we saw was ‘Fairy Alfalfa’ (Claire Ball) engaging with the audience speaking in the traditional rhyme of the goodie (or baddie) character. Her sidekick 2IC was a giant Brussel Sprout appropriately called ‘Sprout’ (Beth O’Doherty) who encouraged all to eat greens.

Every panto needs a villain and not to be shortchanged we had two in Fester and Fangoria Fleshcreep (Harri Tague and Erin Rochelle Atack respectively) – both characters, employees of the ‘giant’, were decidedly animated and evil personified and ‘played’ their audience expertly responding to catcalls and responses beyond the fourth wall.

Every panto needs a good romantic lead, and this was no different as ‘Jack’ was played by Jessica Wells-Auchterlonie with a sweet voice and great diction and acting skills. ‘His’ ‘mother’ was ‘Dame Nelly’ (Mathew Pegden) who slipped into the high heels of the character with great ease. I have seen Matthew in several very different roles throughout this year, proving what a versatile actor, they are. Matthew held the audience in the palm of his hand throughout.

Cue the ‘silly Billie’ type performer – this year in the form of ‘Simon the Pieman’ (Hannah Potter) whose entire first act ended up with several pies in her face to much hilarity of the youngsters in the audience (and several ‘not so youngsters’)

The nasty ‘giant’ had kidnapped the queen of ‘Goodwish’ leaving the ‘Princess Mercedes’ (Rosie Roberts) to look after the realm alongside her brother ‘Prince Marmaduke’ (Kai Verity) – both unequipped for the role as ‘regents’ of the realm, ‘Mercedes’ was certainly the most vocal of the two as she played the role very much like a precocious young version of Bonnie Langford to great effect. ‘Marmaduke’ was constantly being told to shut up with the talking (without them being able to get a word in edgeways). Kai, in his panto debut, apart for a brief song in the second act, had only two words to say throughout the panto – ‘Lets Party’. Let’s hope we see (and hear) more of him in future productions.

When we eventually get to the ‘giants’ house in the sky we find ‘Myrtle’ (Heather Scott) who has been there so long as the ‘giants’ housekeeper she has forgotten that she is in actual fact the ‘Queen of Goodwish’

‘Daisy the Cow’, superbly animated with suitable expressiveness by youngsters Millie Van de Lang and Molly Brown, was eventually rescued from the ‘giants’ house – I often wonder when seeing this panto how they manage to get a cow to climb down a beanstalk – but that’s the thoughts of an insomniac reviewer LOL…

The ‘giant’ we find as a tiny tot using their servant to voice the booming sound of the ‘Fi Fie Fo Fum’ (a cameo role for Adrian Jackson even though he was not mentioned in the programme)

All is sorted in the finale as the respective couples go off together (and not what you’d expect) – the baddies are vanquished and the audience go home thoroughly entertained.

The set was superb, costumes excellent, lighting and sound exemplary and the combo led by Rhys tuneful and not overpowering. An expertly directed panto by Caroline.

A final word to the youngsters providing the bulk of the cast – the choreography by Lisa and execution of such was out of this world and it was apparent (and most welcome) that the, predominately, dancers weren’t afraid to open their mouths and sing tunefully to great effect.

Final, final comments – the ‘ghost scene’ (every panto has one) was unique for me in as much as the ‘ghost’ followed the ‘green theme’ and looked like a giant courgette LOL – also a word to Beth playing ‘Sprout’ – this reviewer LOVES sprouts - and also is a fan of (cream) desserts!!!

A superb example of the art of panto….

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