Mother Goose

Tonight, I had the pleasure of returning to Golborne to see Golborne St Thomas’ 2019 Panto ‘Mother Goose’.  Mother Goose is one of the oldest traditional tales and one of the first to be turned into a Pantomime.  Despite the years in existence – it is still very much relevant today.   Set traditionally, this tale tells the story of Mother Goose (the Dame) and her quest to defeat the evil Mother Mandrake (the Baddie); cue the comedy high-jinks and farcical elements.  This production was produced by Keith Wilde who also played the Dame.  Keith is a first-time director and unfortunately, it showed.  Despite the feel-good factor, and the fact that I really enjoyed this pantomime, most of the negative comments I have centre around direction.  For me, there were too many instances when people were using the same entrance and exit, and too many times when actors were standing in straight lines.  The overall pace was quite slow and some of the ‘jokes’ missed the mark.  I appreciate the small theatre space and the lack of exits onstage, I just felt that there were more opportunities to use the other exits from the downstage right exit and the one through the audience.  At times, this was used brilliantly, such as the entrance of the magic pool dancers and panto Dame, but sadly this was not consistent the whole way through.  I am, of course, being very picky.  The audience, and I, enjoyed this panto and great fun was had by all. 

The choreography was basic but effective enough.  For me, there were too many dancers onstage at once which meant that the dances were stunted by the lack of space.  Some of the choreography was better in the scenes which used less dancers, such as the magic pool scene. 

Music for this production was by way of backing tracks.  Some of the intros of the tracks were a little too long which impacted on the overall pace, but the tracks were well cued, and the sound levels were fab.  There were a few slight issues with the sound of shoes on the wooden stage from the stage mics.  This was a little off-putting at times, however the overall sound quality was good, despite there being no head mics.

The set and costumes were well made and really helped make this production look visually great.  It also enabled the audience to quickly engage with the piece, characters and different locations.  A particular mention has to go to the lovely set crew who have clearly worked very hard – it certainly paid off!  The scene changes were done very well and were very quiet, considering the wooden stage.

I was particularly impressed with the lighting design.  I was very impressed with the fantastic use of movers, gels, follow spots and gobos which were all used to great effect.  I particularly loved the use of the gobos and laser style effects during the opening number.  All of your hard work has not gone amiss – well done to the lighting team - (Michael Hill, Lawrence Partington & Toni Partington).

Keith Wilde brilliantly played Mother Goose.  It’s clear that this isn’t Keith’s first foray into playing the panto Dame.  Keith brought great humour, wit and energy to the role and was very entertaining to watch.  I loved Keith’s dry wit and his participation with the audience was brilliant.  It is clear that he is loved amongst this family orientated society and I felt a warmth surge across the audience when he was onstage.  For me, Keith was the strongest link in this production.  He was the glue that held everything together.  Well done Keith!  I look forward to seeing you again next year!

Mother Goose’s children (Geese) – see what I did there?] were played by Jess Payne (Jack) & Ruby Glavin (Jill).  Both were well cast in their roles.  Ruby was very strong as Jill and had a lovely singing voice to boot.  Ruby gave a naturistic performance which suited her character and was a great antithesis to the overall farcical elements.  Jess was very funny as Jack and had a lovely rapport with the audience.  I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more characterisation in the ‘silliness’ and less ‘laid back Jack’ but Jess was fun to watch.

Mother Mandrake was brilliantly played by Michelle Hughes.  It took a while for Michelle to receive the vast number of boos and hisses (it was the audience’s fault) but Michelle was fully in control throughout.  I thought that Michelle brought a great energy to the stage which helped with the pace.  She was vocally very good; her storytelling and projection were also great.  I also quite liked the character traits that she brought to her physicality, particularly her hands.  It may be prudent to tie back the wig ever so slightly to ensure that the audience can see all of her facial expressions but a great performance overall.

The three comedy sidekicks in Hubert (Alexis Wright), Herbert (Georgia Roe) and Williyum (Luke Christopher) were a little hit and miss.  I felt that these characters should’ve had the audience on the edge of their seats laughing as they were a great idea and the script was quite funny.  However, I felt that the performances of Georgia and Luke were a little too laid back which meant that projection was lost, jokes missed their mark, and the pace dropped.  I feel that this is partly down to the direction of these characters.  An injection of energy, pace and more slapstick; particularly the physical comedy would mean that these characters shine though.

Nerys Williams played the role of the Fairy Godmother (Queen of Gooseland).  Some of the storytelling was lost in articulation and projection but overall, Nerys did well in this role.

The baddies’ daughter Ermyntrude was played by Carys Darcy.  I liked Carys’ performance and felt that she was a little underused.  Carys is one to watch for the future.

There are far too many other smaller roles for me to mention.  Overall, this was a very enjoyable pantomime.  The story telling and the characterisations were very good and there were some lovely moments throughout.  It is clear that Golborne St Thomas’ have created a great family feel with their audiences and it was a pleasure to be part of the family.  There is a lot of talented youth coming through the ranks at this society and it is excited to watch the talent emerge.  I sincerely thank STADOS for their hospitality and wish them the very best of luck for their 2019 season.

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