Jack & The Beanstalk

Thank you for the warm welcome Charlotte and Ali. This traditional Panto opened with Fairy Tuppence (Sarah Doherty) in her fabulous jewel encrusted gown. She proceeded to introduce us to the characters and demonstrated her magic powers along the way.  The opening performed by the full company was a lively, country style hoe-down sung enthusiastically and with plenty of energy, and was a good way to kick off this show. 

Jack was played Lewis Jordan who was confident in this role and had a good singing voice.  His mother was Dame Plump played by Tony Stokes, capturing her character well and  injecting good measures of comedy and timing. Richard Ashby along with Vicky Stokes were the county yokels and were a well matched pair. There were good measures of comedy in this script and it was not wasted on the excellent Sergeant Bosh  (Chris Walters) and Corporal Kosh (Nuno Diegues).  I was told that this was Nuno’s first time on stage, a natural comedian who excelled with brilliant facial expressions. They both kept this local village audience in stitches!

Princess Davina was played by the delightful Molly Barnett and along with Bev Pilbrough as King William and Al Rogers as Queen Matilda combined very well in their respective roles.  There has to be a ‘baddie’ in all good Pantos and here we meet the Giant’s henchman, Mickey the Menace. Played by Erin Clark, she gave a very convincing performance of this street wise, cunning character, never letting her attitude drop for an instant and reminded me of Dodger in the musical Oliver without being overly caring to anyone else! The voice of the Giant, who we never actually see, was Julian Ochwat.  We only see a pair of gigantic moving legs in equally enormous boots, which looked absolutely brilliant. They were actually two of the backstage crew members, one for each boot, along with two large eyes projected onto the area above the stage.   A very effective and ingenious idea. Fond mention must also go the Esmerelda, the beloved family cow played by Marina Griggs and Anita Pyke and Rachel Plummer as Mrs Blackberry.

There were good performances from the chorus comprising of a very wide age range. The full company numbers were sung with professionalism and unrelenting enthusiasm. We know from past shows that Julian Ochwat is an accomplished singer; he was also part of the chorus and had helped and encouraged the cast with their singing to good effect. There were also numerous dance routines from this young chorus who were all perfectly in time, the girls looking very smart with their platted hair.  Most of the costumes were from Henley’s extensive wardrobe, they were all good, colourful and in keeping with the characters. The set along with some very impressive back cloths enabled quick scene changes which kept the pace moving well and with good lighting enhanced the sets. There were also some effective UV scenes including one as the beanstalk was growing.

I must also mention the ‘pheasant pluckers’ routine (how brave was that!) and a final song, just before the walk down. This was performed by three of the main characters along with (a nice touch this) three of the backstage crew. A very complicated comedy/action song and how there were no casualties I will never know, but it was very funny. Well done to all involved. 

Congratulations to Charlotte and Ali for bringing this show to life and to all their cast and crew for giving us and their appreciative audience a very enjoyable evening.    

Catherine Dixey. NODA East Representative District E12.  NODA owns the intellectual Property Rights to the content of all show reports written by NODA Councillors, Reps and Assistant Rep

 

 

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