Mother Goose

In a report to you in 2022 I wrote “A good pantomime needs a plethora of pleasant and pernicious people, panache, pzazz, plots, puns and some panic and pandemonium.” Yet again, this script has all that and more for this adaptation of Mother Goose, with the panache starting with the lively opening song and not stopping until the final curtain.

Let me start with the title character, Mother Goose, played by Jonathan Groves. A seasoned dame who had great interaction with the audience and gave many laughs with the ridiculous humour and puns of the writer. His interaction with the rest of the cast was greatly performed.

Still on the subject of pleasant people, I  bring in Mother Goose’s children, Jill and Silly Billy (Amy Burroughs & Kelly Manchée). Jill effectively played the sensible and level-headed one and by the very nature of his name, Billy, being lovely but a little scatter-brained. He had a lot of audience participation to lead and did it effectively. Colin (Jade Berry), a friendly and helpful local lad, joined the merry village throng and did his best to persuade the Squire, his uncle, not to be so rotten.

The Squire was in the pernicious category. He just had to be booed and hissed.  Phil Wotton in this role played the wealthy landowner and was hated by most because of his greed and dodgy monetary dealings. No section 21 in the days of this plot, he simply employed the services of two bailiffs to do his work. Simply is probably the right adjective for their characters - Bill Bumpkin (Sky Ford-Baggaly) and Ben Bogtrotter (Michelle Ede). This was part of the panic and pandemonium.Their tomfoolery was well managed.

One more baddie in this plot was Demon Discontent (James Mitchell). I would call him the smiling assassin or even the lovable rogue. Interfering with people’s lives was his strength and he did that well. He had two songs and they were sung well with very busy choreography from a large ensemble of demons. However, there was no way that he could beat the overpowering abilities of Fairy Friendship (Jasmine Wickens). Portrayed as usual in a glittery costume with a magic wand and appearing just as things went wrong and dealing with the problem to the satisfaction of all (except the Demon).

Priscilla, the apprentice goose, ably maneuvered by Simon Jones in a massive costume, producing various sized eggs, honking to order and even joining in the dancing without treading on others’ toes (I do not know about rehearsals) through a costume with, I guess, quite limited vision.

Two cameo characters, important to the story, were King Proper-Gander (James England) and  Queen Goosegog (Charlotte Grimes). Both parts were played effectively.

The band of four musicians competently accompanied the various principals and large chorus of twenty-nine in an excellent choice of songs. Of those twenty-nine people, twelve were from the children’s section. It was obvious that many were being schooled in ballet. The choreography was well executed throughout and in particular the young ones’ highlighted sections were absolutely lovely. The costumes for the dancers were really colourful and delightful. Also, the costumes for the principals must have kept the wardrobe department busy for a long time. Mother Goose’s costume certainly had the required pzazz.

The technical crew on lighting and sound were not noticeable, so this means that everything went to plan and cues happened correctly. The set designers and builders did really well to cover not only the stage but also part of the auditorium as well with brightly coloured and eye-catching views.

The final “P” is for the pleasure that we, the audience, gained from attending this joyous theatrical proffering. Congratulations to all on stage, backstage and production team for a wonderful show.

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