Little Red Riding Hood

The pantomime Little Red Riding Hood had been written and directed by Sara Temple, who also played the role of Dick. The script contained every fairy-tale and/or nursery rhyme character imaginable of which were played exceedingly well by a very young chorus. Sara as the director made excellent use of the space available both on and off stage bringing the audience into the show with excellent creative thinking.

The show was narrated by Old Mother Hubbard played by Yvonne Crann setting each scene well with a rhyming prose and good humour. 

There was lots of typical panto humour used: slap stick, foam pies, “behind you’s”, song competition and the argued responses.  The script made good use of topical innuendoes and a good rapport, both intentionally and unintentionally made with the audience by several of the actors showed a lovely community spirit.

The plot of the panto focused around a very pleasant Red Riding Hood (Hollie Dutton) falling for Prince Harry (Bethany Dutton) but encaptured various support characters Boza (Ian Wood) and Matt (Nick Anderton), who in their own right worked very well together, Little Bo Peep (Stevie Anderson), Marcus (Abbey Clark), Grandma (Alyson Boote) and Poly’s love interest Clive (Bob Cochrane). Poly (Philip Crann), who had everyone in the audience responding willingly to his request to always shout back when he came on stage, having good energy, chaotic nature, with good panto humour, and a great favourite with the audience The witch –the panto villain, was well played by Anne Bateson, and got plenty of audience response “boo”s. The wolf, who was conjured up by the witch in a delightful dance sequence performed by Georgia Nelson, was played by Paul Wiles and the audience both shaking in their boots and splitting their sides especially when disguised as Grandma.  

The costumes were well thought out and enhanced the characters nicely and the lighting and sound also brought great atmospheric touches to the show.

Overall a lovely feel good entertaining evening the audience enjoying the show from beginning to end, with rapturous applauses for the curtain call.  A great night in which the cast enjoyed the show as much as the audience. Well Done.

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