Jurassic Panto

A pantomime based around dinosaurs! Now if that doesn’t that get your attention, nothing will!  It certainly grabbed the residents of Maulden as this home written and directed pantomime by Simon Jeffery amply demonstrated by selling out before Christmas six weeks before opening night!  Almost the definition of clever out of the box thinking, or in this case out of the cage!

The superbly implausible story centres around a brilliant scientist with the wonderful name of Winston Fossilworth discovering how to bring back dinosaurs and who’s grandson Felix subsequently opens a dinosaur park in the Bedfordshire village of Maulden! A theme park in Bedfordshire – unthinkable!!! Unfortunately, his next-door neighbour, with another great name of Ivor Smallbone also owns a zoo which is dedicated to Crabs – cue a few innuendos! Ivor is not happy when his visitor numbers all but cease as everybody flocks to the new dinosaur park and he plots to steal all the dinosaurs with the aid of his two sidekicks, Bungle and Botch. With the aid of Animal Handler, Dash, dinosaur geek Dorothy (Dot) and Dot’s mother Dame Flossy Raptor they set out to thwart Ivor’s plans and return the dinosaurs safely to the park. Amusing “Wanted style” posters of Ivor were in plain view around the hall with the words, ‘Do Not Admit This Man.’

We started off with a solicitor with yet another of those wonderful onomatopoeic names, Elsie Ewincourt, pronounced ‘I’ll see you in Court’  reading out a spoof letter from Steven Spielberg forbidding the use of the words ‘Jurassic Park,’ so we the audience had to shout out ‘You can’t say that!’ whenever we hear them said during the show. Let’s just say, we were loud!

Maulden Players are blessed with a very talented team of set-builders under the leadership of artist and set designer Marion Hynes and we were treated to a series of superbly detailed  sets, including, the entrance to the Dinosaur park with a gift shop, a crab aquarium, a bakery and a dinosaur enclosure, complete with a massive pile of dung, all exquisitely  detailed, especially all the crabs in the aquarium.  Not to forget the wire cage behind partly opened tabs to hold the dinosaurs and its broken version when they were stolen or escaped. But first of all, we started with a very professionally produced short film showing how Felix’s grandfather, Winston Fossilworth had first brought the dinosaurs back to life. The playwright himself played Winston as well as directing the film, Nick Endacott was the archaeologist, Mark Sheppard, the Foreman; Katie Jeffery Winston’s wife and Freddie Frizzelle, Young Felix. Incorporating some AI technology we even had a baby dinosaur breaking out of its eggshell, which was actually done using a real egg!  Very clever.

Costumes, sourced by Norma Henderson, assisted by Helen England and playwright Simon Jeffery, were great fun and very amusing as an assortment of varying sized dinosaurs took to the tiny stage in Maulden Village Hall. We had everything from a handheld puppet size raptors, Triceratops, Dilophosaurus to a giant aisle filling Diplodocus struggling to climb the steps to the stage. All adding merriment to the spectacle. And we had a radio-controlled dinosaur T-Rex crossed with a Pantomime Horse to give us a Pantosaurus whose control device was at various times named B.U.M, B.U.T.T, A.R.SE.  And of course we had the obligatory colourful OTT costume for our Dame!

Music, sourced of course by the director contained some excellent diverse popular songs from Jurassic Park (but you can’t say that!) to Total Eclipse of The Heart, I predict a riot and Hold the Line in the first Act to SOS, Get Back, Shake It Off, I fought The Law, a great community song of Take Me Home Country Road and the final bow of Walk The Dinosaur.

The acting in this was excellent with some wonderfully OTT characters, starting with Zep Tocco as Dame Flossy Raptor, who not only had a great quick witty rapour with the audience also had some wonderful questioning facial expressions when other characters were clearly talking nonsense or putting forward impossible ideas! James Struthers with a black wig and suitable dark clothing and make up was our superb baddy Ivor Smallbone.  A man whose versatility appears to know no bounds, fresh from last year’s Dame and a spoof version of Boris Johnson a few years before. Great to watch!

Tayla Blackman was the very convincing Dinosaur Geek, Dorothy or Dot, paired well with her also Morse Code named Principal boy Dash, played by Liza Van Duzer, who also turned out to be a rather a good puppeteer when attached to a small Raptor.  Our two bumbling idiots as Ivor Smallbone’s incompetent assistants, Bungle (Alison Struthers) and Botch (Tracy Canavan-Smith) were worth the ticket price alone. Their clueless expressions were absolutely priceless.  Edward Frizzelle as Felix Fossilworth looked every bit the intrepid explorer. Lauren Chimes was the ideal dinosaur expert Dr Jean Splicer. And our uptight Solicitor Elsie Ewincourt,’ was equally well played by Vicki Summerfield.’

Nice little cameo from Zack Herman as the delivery man when he wasn’t the pleasing purple Pantosaurus. Various other multiple parts and dinosaurs were played by Maxine Tocco, Elaine Impey,  Sarah Joy, Helen England Lily Patterson, Ben Michaels, Roy Pollard, Ava Ansell, Gavin Blackman, Mia Impey and Tessa Hillman.

This was a refreshing reworking of pantomime, although I use the term loosely, which worked rather well and was certainly excellent entertainment. So, my congratulations to Writer, Director, Musical Director, Costumes Sourcer, Prologue Editor and Director, Poster and Programme Designer, Simon Jeffery, his cast and crew for a great show, although he clearly has never heard of the word ‘delegation’ and I remain in awe of the number of roles he undertook for himself! 

Finally, I might suggest a couple of extra shows next year, as Maulden’s panto is clearly the only show in town, if it sells out before Christmas!

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