Jack and the Beanstalk

This was my first trip to see the Wellington Pantomime Group. Noting that it was written by the group themselves I was interested to see what they would do with Jack and The Beanstalk – and I was not disappointed.

Wellingtonia is a less than affluent Kingdom and King Crumble is at his wits end to keep the country solvent as the treasury remains resolutely empty, whatever taxes they levy… Little has he realised his own tax collector, the aptly named Fleshcreep has been cooking the books and lining his own pockets for years, in cahoots with Thundersnore the local giant.  Disaster strikes as Crumble’s daughter goes missing and Jack (local lad, works in the dairy) sets out to rescue her accompanied by a fierce SWAT team of professionals (well, Dame Gertrude Trott and Silly Simon).

The show begins with the prologue during which the slimy Fleshcreep introduces himself with some (very funny) choice insults to the crowd. He is soon joined by fairy Compost with her deliciously impish voice in a fabulous costume, trimmed with ivy. A newly promoted fairy, it’s clear she’ll be more than a match for Fleshcreep.

The show opens to Colour our World with Princess Jill and her friends. The opening was a blast of energy and colour with great vocals and pretty harmonies. The chorus were well warmed up and nicely enhanced by the six-piece band who played beautifully. There were some lovely stagecraft details - this was a directing team that utilised every aspect of the staging to entertain – even the flowers on the set moved in time to the music. The choreography was creative and danced without a foot out of place and the number ended with a great freeze-frame tableau.

As we meet Silly Simon and discover he’s secretly in love with Jill, any hopes for that disappear since Jill’s Dad, the nervous King Crumble believes the only solution to the nation’s dire straits is to marry her off to a rich Prince. We are then treated to a brilliant ballad as Simon sings the blues in his own version of I’m Just Ken – Simon’s not the only member of the family in love with a Royal as Dame Gertrude, owner of the local Dairy graces the stage in glorious technicolour, instantly connecting with the audience as she searches for a new boyfriend, culminating in a fabulous rendition of Superstar.

This was a well-written, witty and original script, directed, produced and performed with clear determination to wring every ounce of humour possible out of the show. There were so many lovely, funny and original moments such as the heart rending and cruel sale of the cow, the 5-ghost ghost  routine, Simon’s fabulous “Apple” watch playing snatches of narrative songs on shuffle, the growing of the beanstalk, the superb puppet work (both operation and creation) of the fantastic Giant to mention but a few.

Also thoroughly entertaining to see (and a personal favourite) was the deliciously funny rendition of “If I was not a Court Jester Something Else I’d like to be..” Beautifully performed.

It was easy to see how much love and work had gone into the creation of Jack and the Beanstalk, the sets were vibrant and well considered, the rainbows and special effects were magical and the costumes looked stunning.

This was a well cast show, the Dame was clearly very experienced and had a lovely rapport with the crowd – the actor had a huge part to learn and made it look easy. Simple Simon won hearts from the get go and gave a lovely performance as did King Crumble who was entertainingly scared of Gertie.

Jill was a lovely feisty leading lady with great vocals and was nicely complemented by a lovely performance from Jack.

The Giant was spectacular – I have never seen a giant walk across the stage, it must have been hours and hours of work to create this enormous puppet which was operated both internally (legs, arms hands jaw and head movements) by an actor on stilts as well as remotely controlled (eyes, eyelids). Thundersnore was created from recycled materials including a bamboo didjeridoo! Wow!!!!

Fleshcreep was deliciously evil - the actor had great presence and lovely comic timing and he was nicely countered by Fairy Compost who gave a great performance. Beautifully coached and choreographed, the ensemble were a well-oiled machine of individuals who danced and sang beautifully with genuine smiles throughout. My heart was totally won by the animals – the cow was brilliant and the chicken was so expressive.

What an entertaining, riotous, colourful show - congratulations Wellington Pantomime Group – you smashed it!!

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