Jack & The Beanstalk

With a good helping of hissing and booing plus plenty of he’s behind you and oh no he isn’t this was sure to be a good evening’s entertainment watching a true traditional family pantomime.

We all know the story of Jack & The Beanstalk and how the villagers are terrorised by the giant in the sky and how this was overcome with the help of a good fairy and of course Jack, well here we had a truly loveable fairy, Fairy Sugardust, played by Millie Ducker. I am not sure of the age of Millie but she looked very young but was able to give this part the right amount of sparkle to warm the hearts of the audience both young and old. Of course any fairy has to have an arch rival and here again we had a good one, Piccalilli played by Karen Osman who received a good helping of hissing and booing at each entrance.

Piccalilli also had a helper to support her in all her evil deeds, Rancid the Ratman played equally as sinister as his boss by Jonathan Cobb and although he also got his fair share of hissing and booing the audience loved him. Also helping Piccalilli were Snatchet and Scarper played by Mark Wareing and Catherine Enos, I say helping but to be honest I am not sure if they did actually help her!

In the leading roles of this panto we had Samantha Smedley as Jack who was not only able to show off her long legs but also her acting and singing abilities throughout, not only in her solos but also her duets and with the full company. Samantha was perfect in this part as was her love interest Princess Primrose played equally as well by a charming Charlotte Burgin, both these excelled themselves and were loved by the entire audience.

Of course we all know Jack has to have a brother and a mother as any pantomime visitor will tell you,once again these parts were in the more than capable hands of Ashley Booker and John Green as Simple Simon and Dame Dotty Dimple respectively, both of them had the audience eating out of the palms of their hands and this showed each time they  entered the stage when they shouted back “Don’t be simple Simple Simon”, they loved it.

The Princess Primrose was able to show off her parents in this panto, King Hubert and Queen Hyacinth played effortlessly by Kristian Denman and Vivienne St John, again they were able to bring the right amount of humour to these parts without going over the top.

All the principals were well supported by the full company together with the Julie Turner Stage Academy to give a great evening’s entertainment.

Many congratulations to all involved.

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