Mother Goose

Many thanks to Preston Musical Comedy Society for inviting me along to see their production of Mother Goose at the Preston Playhouse on 20th December 2022. This was a wonderful production from start to finish which had all audience members egging the players along and laughing from their bellies throughout.

The show was directed by Mark Howard who provided a fully rounded production. The narrative was that of Mother Goose and her Children Billy and Gill, who were very poor. Mother Goose’s ex-lover, Squire Soppy-Sausage, put the rent of everyone in the village up considerably, and so the good fairy provided Mother Goose a magical Goose who laid golden eggs making her the wealthiest lady in the land. The evil fairy bewitched the Squire and his 2 minions, Bish and Bosh, to undergo her evil plan to steal Pricilla. Of course, they fail, as and so barters with Mother Goose to trade the Goose for beauty. Mother Goose realises the error of her ways; that beauty is only skin deep, the Evil Fairy is defeated, and restoration is returned; taxes are reduced and Squire Soppy-Sausage’s son Collin, gets married to Gill for the finale. This storyline was well crafted, providing lots of dynamics throughout, all characters were high energy, but this ebbed and flowed throughout. What I loved most about the direction of this piece, was the injection of various styles of humour, which cut across each other in a way that kept the humour consistent, from vaudeville style slapstick, dry witted gags and punchlines, great audiences participation, some risqué adult humour including phallic suggesting props, lots of pies in faces, along with a physical theatre style ‘whoopsi’ section where Billy and Mother Goose epically failed to put wall paper up on the wall.

Choreography was undertaken my Gemma Burns & Hannah Riordan which was quite detailed and to a high quality. Some of the cast high strong technical ability, and the 2 choreographers worked to each of the cast’s strengths. There was good use of different techniques, including a nice balletic section undertaken by the youth chorus.

Musical Direction was provided by Dave Thomas who provided a great mixture song throughout the production which was accompanied by a 3-piece band throughout the production. Songs ranged from spins on modern pop hits, such as ‘Shout Out to My Ex (eggs)’, to some 60s/ 70s hits with ‘Raining Men’ and ‘Shake Your Tail Feather.’ All numbers were very well placed within the script, contextualising the moments of some to allow for them to be a continuation of the narrative. Most numbers included some wonderful harmonic arrangements that added additional texture and dynamics to the piece.

Set design, costumes, props and lighting and sound were top notch throughout and were extremely detailed, providing a rich, vibrant and visually interesting production throughout.

Now to the cast, as noted above, all cast members strengths were brought into the production which led to some great moments of theatrics and comedy! The chorus were extremely well drilled in all elements of the production which built wonderful contextualisation and energy to the performance. All involved within this pantomime should be proud of their work and contributions.

Mother Goose was played comfortably by Daniel Haresnape. He gave all one would expect of a traditional panto dame, with some fantastic ad libs and was truly living in and loving the moment. He had great rapport with the entire cast and energy throughout and really had the audience on his side!

Jack Price played Bill Goose, the Silly Billy type character. This performance was nothing short of superb, delivering extreme energy physically with a gentleness to the delivery of speech drew the audience into him. Throughout the entire show, Billy was full of wonderful exaggerated facial expressions and had a genuine smile throughout the entire production. He brought good dance rhythm into the characterisation, punctuating some of the many dad jokes which just kept rolling off his tongue. Very well done on this performance Jack, great work throughout!

The love couple of the story, Collin and Jill Goose, were played by Pippa Lane and Kate Parks who were both perfectly cast for these roles. They had amazing chemistry together; their duets and solos were vocally outstanding and had great blend in their different tones. Very well played indeed.

The good fairy ’Fairy Footloose’ and baddy Demon of Discontention were also well played by Amy Llewellyn and Hannah Thurston. These both epitomised these characters physically and vocally and were a great Ying and yang to each other. I adored the Rap Duel, where the 2 battled it out throwing rhyming burns at each other.

The comedy duo, Biff and Boff, were played by Eleanor Jolliffe and Jack Barratt. This pair had me in stitches throughout the performance! Eleanor delivered a facially slaps slick characters through various over exaggerations and grimaces, while Jack played a simpler character who was the butt of many jokes. There were some great repeated motifs of physical theatre which resulted in Boff being whacked over the head.

Squire Sloppy-Sausage and Queen of Gooseland we played by Steven Hall and Anne Arkwright who delivered great characterisations.

Finally, Pricilla the Goose was played by Hannah Riordan and Gemma Burns on alternate performances. This 8-foot Goose was a delight to watch onstage. The costume was integrated with puppetry which enabled the eyes to blink and mouth to open, which were integrated into the performance well allowing some element of emotive response to the puppet.

Many thanks again to Preston Musical Comedy Society for inviting me to see their fabulous pantomime. I very much look forward to seeing next years productions from this society.

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