Jack and the Beanstalk

With no front tabs we were able to see the performers take their place on stage for the first scene. Everyone maintained character well during this time. The opening Bruno Mars number was performed with obvious enjoyment by the young cast. The inflatable instruments were a nice touch. The combination of taped music and piano worked well throughout this production. Where taped music was used it was well cued.

This group is now reaping the rewards of investing time in it's younger performers, who are now experienced enough to take on large roles, and the excellent teamwork they demonstrated was a pleasure to witness. There were lots of crowd pleasing references to local people, and the story featured many current topical issues, such as wind turbines and council tax bills. There was a good sense of comic timing and punch lines were well delivered.

The sets were simply constructed using a series of wooden blocks, which were rearranged as necessary by backstage crew. These scene changes took place in low light, which worked well, except that there were quite a lot of different scenes, so there was an inevitable slowing of pace while the blocks were moved. I wonder if it was necessary to change the stage layout quite so much, as the excellent back projection very quickly informed us that we were in a new scene. When it was necessary to rearrange the blocks for a scene, perhaps it would have been worth experimenting with some different ways of moving them, for example the actors could move them whilst continuing their lines, or the narrators (hags) could occasionally move a scene whilst speaking? Whilst pace is important in any genre, it is particularly so in a pantomime where there are young children (with short attention spans) in the audience. On some occasions however, eg. with the bringing on of the bed for the twins, the subdued light and scene change gave you the opportunity to bring on an unseen performer and on these occasions the scene change was necessary and very successful.

As anticipated, the back projection was excellent, particularly when it was combined with the action on the stage, as in the scene with the Ogre behind the bed and the James Bond spoof. Sound and lighting effects were very realistic, as was the growing of the beanstalk. There were some especially nice moments: the mincer was very realistic; the Ogre 'playing' the skeletons like a xylophone; the children dressed as flowers in the Dame's garden; the James Bond spoof; and the dancing 'dwarf' which was very cleverly performed.

The finale number was wonderfully up-tempo and performed with obvious enjoyment by the cast and, as usual in this company, every performer was acknowledged in the bows.

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