Mother Goose

Arriving at Swanmore Village Hall and being greeted yet again by a packed house, it was obvious that SADS have hit on the right formula for their pantos. A sell-out first night is not unusual for this group and watching their latest production, “Mother Goose” (by Limelight Scripts), it is obvious why.

Director Carol Sealey has pulled together a strong cast with a very wide age range. Roger Minors as Simple Simon was really good at warming up the rather shy audience. His experience and likeability are essential for the comic character in getting the audience interacting and on his side against the baddies. Roy Phillips as Mother Goose made a great dame, pompous, vain and strutting, and I was amazed to hear that this was the first time he’d played dame.

Liam Gray and Emilie Varcoe were well matched as Jack and Jill. Both had the right degree of innocence about them and good singing voices to-boot. Danny Jeffs made an excellent Demon Night. Great makeup and costume allied to very thoughtful characterisation – not taking the obvious snarling baddie route. In complete contrast was the beautiful, “goody two-shoes” Fairy Day, played by Shauna Rose helping the side of good with her sparkling wand and dialogue all in rhyme. Brokers men Biff (Jane Foster) and Bash (Matthew Dillon) had a good rapport and were an example of how this company’s policy of mixing young and not so young actors together works so well. Similarly, the children playing the orphans showed great confidence and had no problems projecting their voices to the back of the hall, where I was sitting.

I always prefer to hear live music rather than backing tracks and the three piece band (keyboard, bass and drums) under MD Peter Fellows, hidden behind their screens, provided just the right volume to accompany the singers. Choreographer Caroline Powell had worked out some very effective routines which were well executed by the cast. Praise must also go to the wardrobe team for the costumes which all looked highly colourful and effective.

As always with this company, the set was very well designed and constructed and the props were excellent. I was particularly impressed by the hot air balloon (which really appeared to take off), the beauty salon and the well. A lot of time and ingenuity had obviously been invested by the construction and props crews. Lighting too was most effective, especially the scenes in Deathly Hallows wood. Unfortunately a couple of rather protracted scene changes slowed the otherwise good pace of the show, but I’m sure this will improve as the run progresses.

So SADS can notch up another success that combined all the traditional panto ingredients with good direction, a stylish set, colourful costumes, and a talented cast. The end result obviously delighted the capacity audience.

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