Jack and the Beanstalk

The origins of British Pantomime, or "Panto", date back to the middle ages, but has constantly been adapted to survive up to the present day.  Pantomime, as we know it today is a show predominantly aimed at children, based on a popular fairy tale or folk legend though the storyline is often tenuous.  The most popular pantomimes are: "Cinderella", followed by "Aladdin", "Dick Whittington" and "Snow White". Another popular panto is "Jack and the Beanstalk", which was this year’s offering from Haslingfield Little Theatre.

The eleven principals (I am counting Daisy as two here!) were all very proficient with several good performances.  I thought King Bertram (John Beresford) and Simple Simon (Mike Bass) were among the best but Joyce Dale as Flunkit was “my favourite” a wonderfully comedic performance. I thought both Dame Trot (Andy Walker) and Slimeball (James Thomas) had rather hesitant styles of delivery which at times broke the flow of things rather.There was certainly no denying the energy and enthusiasm generated by both actors but I felt that both had the potential to be even better.

Although the main characters of the story Jack Trott and Princess Demelza (Sally Ricketts and Ellen Beddard) didn’t really get much stage time but I really enjoyed their song in the wood with poor Flunkit disguised as a tree. 

Being the back end of a cow is probably never a good thing to put on your CV : nevertheless it must be a really hard job and not as easy as it was made to look by Pam Holt and her friend at the front, new HLT member Marion Campbell.  There was   some lovely reactions which almost made us believe the cow was actually showing expressions.

Working her magic with the growing beanstalk and keeping things on course was Sarah Stevens as Edena the Eco Fairy (who has an excellent voice by the way) and completing the lineup one of the most amazing human giants I have seen for ages played by Ron van de Hoorn - who looked to be about 7ft tall - with some amazing prosthetics created by Judith Willows and make-up by Emma Boggust and Sarah Holt.

 The Young HLT chorus augmented by a sprinkling of HLT adults put in fine efforts.  I thought the cockroaches were very good, their costumes were excellent and the disciplined clicking of their claws very eerie.  The chorus work under Choreographer Judith Willows and Eliza Chambers and Musical Director Hilary Stokes was well up to HTL standard.

On the technical side Paul Brammar’s set designs were excellent and beautifully painted by Prue van der Hoorn and team. It is amazing what HLT achieve on their small village hall stage.  Lighting design (Phil Dale), Sound and special effects (by Charlie Smith) and props by Jenny Gore and her team were all spot on.  The costume Team led by Terry Baker were as always first-class and all fitted well which is often not the case.  The cherry on the top was the music provided by some very talented musicians.

In summary this was a sterling effort from the whole cast.  OK one or two late entrances slowed the pace rather but overall it worked well and, although the audience was 75% adults, there was plenty of uninhibited audience participation.  I love panto and this was a very enjoyable evening.

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