Oh! Verona! - Romeo et Juliet – The Panto

Roadwater Players

‘Oh! Verona! - Romeo et Juliet – The Panto’

Written by: Clifford Martindill.                                                    

Director: Verity Martindill.

My second invited visit as your NODA District 8a Representative to Roadwater to see the Players latest production – your own home-grown script and interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, presented in Pantomime fashion. It sounded intriguing.

On arrival at your lovely hall I was made to feel very welcome and settled down to see what you had devised for your audience. We opened to a beautifully constructed and painted set, a trend which continued throughout the show. Each scene gave us a crisp, well presented representation of each place we found ourselves in, with some really lovely attention to detail. I particularly liked the practical fountain and the thoughtful design that went into Juliet’s bedchamber – a small but great demonstration of visual humour there, so important in Pantomime. I would have liked to have seen more of this.

The good visual picture continued with your choice of costumes – all very well thought out and mostly, perfectly appropriate for the characters we encountered along the way. The ladies chorus were a particular delight with their lovely gowns. Their regular appearances delivering musical interludes, connecting and recapping the story were a real pleasure and great fun. It was a conundrum that Nurse was dressed appropriately for Shakespeare but disappointingly not for true Pantomime Dame attire. Lighting and sound were also totally appropriate and all was delivered on cue.

I have to be honest and say that although I enjoyed the show, I did find myself really having to keep reminding myself that I was watching a Pantomime. A well written, but extremely wordy, script gave, in my opinion, a lovely lighthearted, comedic take on a well-known story and if I had been told that this was what I was going to see from your programme description then I would have been perfectly happy as I really enjoyed the presentation portrayed in that format. I did struggle, however, to believe that this was truly a Pantomime. The knockabout pace, sparkle, comedy and traditional mayhem of a Panto was missing for me and I think for some of your audience too. The pace was unchangingly steady and your cast worked together well, with well-drawn characterisations but we needed a little more ‘full on’ ridiculousness that Pantomime brings. It was quite serious in parts and placings were mostly static. The presentation was very tableaux like. I think any children who came along to watch would have found it difficult to follow and weren’t treated to the full visual traditional Pantomime experience. The slapstick scenes were very ‘dry’ and no link man character or exuberant style of Dame was there to deliver the comedy both visually and aurally to give your audience the bounce and connection that pantomime requires.

All that being said, as mentioned before, I really genuinely did enjoy the show. It was obvious that a lot of hard work had gone into the production and to produce your own script, with excellent music and lyrics is commendable. Lovely to see young members onstage giving high standard individual performances and doing what was asked of them very well. Added to that some great singing, acting and teamwork. The Shakespearian interpretation of the piece was really evident and shone through in every scene. So, in conclusion a real juxtaposition for me in finding myself reviewing a very good parody of a Shakespearian tale against a not so traditional rather intellectual style Pantomime. I think I will remember the former description as being my preferred one.

It is always really good to see groups trying new challenges and being brave enough to experiment with different scripts and styles of productions. The easier option is to stick with the tried and tested and not have a go at bringing variation to your repertoire. It is always good too, to see groups doing this whilst adhering to and maintaining high standards of presentation and this is exactly what you did. Well done.

Thank you for your hospitality and for the invitation.

I look forward to future productions.

Jane Burt

District 8a Representative

NODA South West

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