Mother Goose

Covering for a colleague brought me to the beautiful village of Ovingham and a first time visit for me to Ovingham Drama Group. It was good to see the village Reading Room was full for the matinee performance of this production and the mood was set with a play list of “bird” related songs as we waited for the show to begin, a nice touch.  

Costumes throughout worked well and I liked the idea of the chorus having a base costume to which appropriate accessories were added to depict their characters. The dame costumes were appropriately over the top and garish and the goose family costumes were beautiful. The set was simple but worked well and the pace was maintained by using entrances through the hall as well as stage which meant we never waited for a scene change. The lighting complimented the scenes appropriately.

Music was provided by a one-man orchestra, Justin Radford, and the overture had me laughing out loud, it involved not only the keyboard but Swanee whistles, honking rubber pigs, a guiro, duck call and a whistle, hilarious. There was an enjoyable mix of music throughout the show.

During the opening scene we met our Fairy Friendship, Liz Lake, and Demon Discontent, Bob Justham; these two provided a perfect balance of calm and serene verses manic mayhem and it worked really well, both strong performances. As King Proper-Gander and Queen Goosegog of Gooseland, Francis Jones and Abi Walton were suitably excentric and regal; Jill, Mother Goose’s daughter was played sweetly by Caitlin Davidson and the unlikely principal boy “Colin” was well played by Lizzie Hodgson, giving this introverted character an interesting personality (complete with Rubix cube!). The bailiffs Bill and Ben were well portrayed by Ray Moore and Lorraine White, they had a good partnership and good clear delivery, great characters. As Priscilla the goose, Nicky Irvine did a super job of her expressions without us being able to see her face or use her voice, well done, not an easy part to play. Lee Robinson had lots of energy and did a good job getting the audience on his side as Silly Billy Gosling, his daft jokes were definitely audience pleasers. The Squire, Maximillian Moneybags, was the character you loved to hate and grew to love. Bill Clegg did a super job, strong characterisation and some hilarious scenes with Mother Goose played by director Dan Gowens who was suitably outrageous, loud and quick with the ad-libs as well as funny – the “glamour” look did give me strong “The GC” vibes. The chorus worked hard throughout portraying the villagers, ghouls, sprits, dancers and geese, they were kept very busy.

The audience certainly rewarded your hard work with plentiful cheers, laughs and clapping; this was goodhearted community theatre enjoyed by everyone present. Well done everyone involved on stage and behind the scenes.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.