Little Red Riding Hood

This was a ‘home-made’ pantomime in every sense of the word – two young members of the Society, Emma Burton and Liam Hunter having written the piece but, although the writing lacked a certain amount of finesse, the panto, together with the home-made costumes, scenery and props still made an enjoyable evening’s entertainment, if the vociferous reaction of the children in the audience was anything to go by.  All the traditional elements of a Panto were included. Sweeties were handed out, a song for the audience to join in, all the usual trappings of ‘He’s behind you’ and ‘Oh no it isn’t’ etc lustily entered into.  Slapstick comedy is really not my scene, there was a valiant attempt at the famous wallpapering scene, perfected by many past Panto ‘greats’, but this didn’t really come off and together with the old bucket of water (which turns out to be glitter paper) thrown over the audience, merely left the stage and the front of the stalls looking very untidy for the rest of the show. 

The story held a vague semblance to the original fairytale which had somehow become entangled with a St Trinian’s type of school;  ‘Red’ (Emma Burton) being the ringleader of disobedience there and her sister ‘Kate’ (Danielle Rice) being the epitome of goodness, sweetness and light.  The ineffective Headmaster tried hard but had little control over his unruly pupils as had their teacher Mrs Ryan.   Of course, in addition there was the wicked Lord of the Manor (Richard Knowles), only recognizable, when he morphed into a wolf, by his ‘Y’ fronts, who was ably assisted by his adoring, artistically made-up ‘Meg the Mystic’ (Sara Devitt) brewing her evil spells to satisfy his commands.  Dim Tim (Tom Platts) and a well dressed and beautifully made-up Dame Dolly (Liam Hunter) very ably provided the energetic comedy parts and Prince William and his bodyguard Harriet completed the cast of Principals who were delightfully backed by a chorus of the IT Kids as children of the school.   Of course, as in all good Pantomimes, everything ends happily.

This is a Society who, like a great number of other societies, looks back on more successful, happier days but now struggles to keep performing and it is only by the sheer determination of a few people such as these that Societies survive.

Keep up the good work.  

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