Aladdin

Well, here we are again. It's pantomime season and my first visit this year was once again to see Mawdesley Amateur Dramatic Society’s (MADS) production of Aladdin which is arguably one of the most popular pantomimes performed throughout the country.The story is one of the tales found in the book "The Arabian Nights" also known as “The Book of a Thousand and One Nights”, and was probably based on a middle eastern folk tail. However, it was not in the original Arabic text, but was added in the 18th century by the Frenchman Antoine Galland.

This version was written by MADS member Adrian Barradell and Gareth Preston. Adrian also Directed the pantomime as well as taking on some of the smaller cameo roles. There was a wide age range in the cast and they worked together to produce an enjoyable evenings entertainment. We saw Laura Tingle take on the title role of Aladdin after apparently only taking it over three weeks prior to the show opening. Well done, Laura it was a very nice confident performance.  Emma Meen made a lovely Princess Jasmine singing very well and especially managing to get through the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” while Abanaza, played by Finlay Robertson, misbehaved behind her. Finlay was suitably devious and wicked and he got plenty of boos from the audience. Then we had Phil Quinn as the very comedic Widow Twankey. Phil had a very good rapport with the audience and was able to react to unexpected situations excellently which are important requirements to successfully play a Dame. There was an entertaining comedy duo, Ping played by Chris Hill  who was joined in his comedic antics by young actor Thomas Robinson playing Pong, the duo got some good laughs from the audience. Then we had two secure performances from Clive Hepplestone as Jasmine’s father the Emperor and Alan Roe was the Vizier. Some of the Younger members of the cast also had important roles to play - they included a confident singing and acting performance from Freddie Waring as The Genie of the lamp and Joy Owen was also confident and made a very nice Servant of the Ring. We had Aladdin’s brothers, played enthusiastic and comedically by Olivia Smallshaw as Wishey and Rosie Furzeman as Washey. Then there was Jolee Poole as So Shy and Rebecca Roe as So fun, who suited their roles nicely as the princesses handmaidens. Lorraine Ryan, Rory Poole and Adrian Barradell  took on the smaller Cameo roles and young Josh Quinn became little Aladdin after Aladdin was shrunk in the washing machine, well done Josh. The chorus was made up from the junior members of the cast who all appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely especially when telling jokes and they were also very entertaining to watch during the action on stage.

Although there were no set chorus numbers, there were two lovely dance performances that had Choreography by Lorraine Ryan. This was the shows first night and there were a few mistakes along with some forgotten dialogue, however I have to say the cast turned these occasions into very funny comedy moments by including the audience in the joke and producing some very funny laugh out loud situations which didn’t seam to affect the audiences enjoyment at all

The excellent multipurpose set was designed and constructed by Tony McAughey, the transitions between scenes and also lighting and sound were generally good although it was the fist night and there was one or two late cues, but they were not very noticeable and didn’t effect the action on stage well done to all the stage and technical crew.

Costumes were colourful and suitable for the story and I am sure lots of hard work had gone into getting them right, however just a constructive comment, it might have been nice to see a change of costume for the wedding at the end, even if it was just Aladdin and Jasmine. In my experience children like to see and look forward to seeing the costumes for the wedding, thus bringing the show to a sparkling finale. One of the ideas of the community song is to allow the cast to change costume, but then I understand there are cost implications if costumes are being hired.

The audience appeared to really enjoy themselves the evening we visited, they enthusiastically took part and responded to the action on stage which is the most important element for a Pantomime to be a success. Congratulations to everyone involved in bringing this production to the stage.

Thank you for inviting us we had an lovely enjoyable evening hope to see you again soon.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.