Little Red Riding Hood

This  Panto based on the traditional fairy story was written by Tracy Rogers  with the usual characters, but with a modern  twist and  other  characters from Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde thrown in to spice up the proceedings.  It had plenty of comic one liners,  slapstick comedy  and a larger than life dame.

This show was full of energy and enthusiasm  from the whole cast right down to the Youth Chorus.    Red Riding Hood  was  played by Lauren Apps, in this her first leading role with SODS,  although she had been in SODS Youth productions  since she was twelve.  She  was very convincing,  with a maturity she brought to  her role, despite her tender years. She was ably supported by her ‘hoody’ friends,  modern girls who  were not  afraid to investigate the strange goings on at the Museum.  Nigel  Lungley-Radford played Granny Smith, the cheeky dame, who communicated well with the audience and who had made all his own wonderful,  numerous,  colourful and  quirky costumes.  Kenny Sayer was The Squire, and  Jo Jones, who gave a strong performance as his daughter,  Lady Penelope  who falls in love with Jack the Woodcutter, played by  Nyiesha Austin.  Johnny Ellis was Professor Lupus who turned into the big bad Wolf, along with Jon Wray as Doctor Jekyll/Mr Hyde. The two worked well  together  and were very believable in their dual roles.  Karen Long as Countess Bloodlust  was excellent in her  role and I thoroughly enjoyed her performance.   Mention must also go to Smash and Grab, (Graham Puttock and Peter Hawkes), the comedy duo  and Count Toothree  (Louis Warner) as a  very believable camp vampire character who you would not want to meet in the middle of the night! The whole cast and chorus worked well together. It was nice to see two new little faces in the youth chorus, Charlie Jones and Fiona Jones , in their first Panto,  a new generation of SODS,  working alongside their parents and demonstrating their inherited talent to good effect.

Cassandra , the director and main choreographer was  ably assisted by Carrie Chadwick, her dance captain and Sharon Preece, and  together   produced some innovative dance routines. The dancers, made up of the ‘Hoody’  Girls and the additional dancers gave us some extremely good quality and polished  performances. Well done girls!  Despite the large cast on a smallish stage,  the dancing was good and did not look too overcrowded. There were so many good dances, it is difficult to pick out the best, but the  number with the UV lighting in the museum was particularly effective.  This was the first time SODS had not had live music and instead worked from backing tracks. Sue Ogden  had worked  hard with the cast to achieve this effectively and  it had worked well.  The Countess  and the Professor’s song  ‘ The Song That Goes Like This’ was a particularly good,  comic number. 

The costumes  were good  and  the quick changes  for the dame,  with all her costumes  and  also the transformations for the Professor and Dr Jekyll into the Wolf and Mr Hyde  were particularly  effective and well managed. 

Congratulations must go to Cassandra and Craig in this their directing debut with Stowmarket, and under their control,  the pace and energy of the whole cast did not falter.  Well done to all their cast and crew for a thoroughly enjoyable performance that certainly kept their audience well entertained.

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