Mother Goose

What a way to commence your return to the theatre by having a matinee as the opening performance complete with noisy and enthusiastic children enjoying the show, being enthralled by the story and being regaled with lemonade and ice cream during the interval. A typical matinee which in my opinion gave the cast a difficult task as they had not settled in to the production run.

Mother Goose, played by Ian Thompson, who also directed the show, gave an excellent performance showing great stage skills in this comic and eccentric role. His handling of the audience was superb and how he managed all of his very quick costume changes was bewildering. He set the tone for the rest of the cast who rose to the occasion with verve and gusto.

Jade Easom-Samuels as Fairy Vanity, the arch villain was outstanding. She put so much venom into her character that she was deservedly booed and hissed at every time she came on stage. There was anger, pleading and terror in her performance which was in marked contrast to the gentleness of Fairy Virtue (Alice Trow) who, of course comes out the winner in the end.

Georgina Kingston played an excellent role as Marjorie Goose, being ably assisted by Claire Cooper as Colin Bigwig, the evil Baron’s nephew. Their duets were well sung and put over, receiving rapturous applause from the audience. It was good to see them working together as principal boy and girl showing so much enthusiasm in their parts.

The additional comedy came from Billy Goose (Mike Wells) and Penny Peaseblossom. This was a love/hate relationship with Penny doing all the chasing and Billy trying to pretend he was not interested. They worked well together and added to the high standard of the show.

Alison White and Fiona Wales as the two hapless and hopeless aides to the Baron were good in their roles and Ian Start gave a solid performance as the Baron.

We never saw Adam Peckitt as Priscilla the Goose as he was completely covered by his costume, but the performance was indeed excellent.

The chorus and other members of the cast were lively and full of excitement as they sang and danced throughout the show.

The costumes were a revelation, being so many and colourful. The entire cast was wonderfully dressed and praise must be given to the costume ladies. The lighting and staging were also good and it was obvious that a lot of thought had gone into this and it was not a make do and mend as is so often seen in some pantomimes..

Music throughout was good and gave us a lot of variety, this being presented by accompanist James Cope and his drummer. The choreography was well performed and was mainly simple but extremely effective.

As previously mentioned, Ian Thompson who directed the show should be proud of his achievements with such a tight and comprehensive production.

What a superb way to return to the theatre after the long absence through the lockdown. Beverley Musical Theatre is now well and truly back on the map. 

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