Once Upon a Time

This was the first time NODA had visited QUADS after the society joined earlier this year. My understanding is the society have performed 11 pantomimes in the past. I was therefore delighted to welcome the society to NODA and join them for their 12th pantomime.

After a warm welcome and a look behind the scenes it was time to sit back and join an almost full house for the late afternoon performance of ‘Once Upon a Time’. This pantomime was slightly different to the most well-known titles however, it contained many familiar characters although not as we automatically envisage them!

There was a very large cast especially considering the size of the stage with a total of 21 named characters. It is therefore difficult to name everyone in detail. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the performance of all and everyone should be proud of their input into the production.

The baddie was effectively played by Linda Thomas as Evelyn a typical pantomime witch who, along with her young apprentice Maisie Wood as Pippin, has a plot against some fellow pantoland characters to prevent a forthcoming marriage. Lottie the daughter of Cinderella is about to marry Prince Marvellous the son of Snow White.

Cinderella played by Claire Scopes while Snow White played by Barbara Ferguson were costumed as we expected. However, they, as well as their respective Prince Charming’s played by Jim Anderson and Alan Rimell are somewhat more mature in years than our expectations! Our two Princesses played these parts particularly well. I did enjoy the spats between the characters and how they managed to tell stories of poisoned apples, glass coffins, dwarves, midnight and glass slippers! Supporting these four was at times a rather tipsy maid played by Kacey Wood.

The dame Gertie or Cinderella’s cook was expertly played by John Ryder who had a great rapport with the audience. Gertie was every very bit the panto dame who seized each opportunity to try and break out into song and was desperate for a kiss with Jack who was also well played by Luke French who managed to dodge each advance.

Our hero Prince Marvellous (Snow White’s son) who intended to marry Princess Lottie (Cinderella’s daughter) played by Robyn Harris and Emma Roberts were a fine match and both worked well together alongside Hannah Upchurch as Millie.

Finally, were our two panto knockabouts Nick and Nack played by Tony Cook and Neil McKenzie who had the audience working with them throughout the whole panto and become great favourites for their antics.  

The first half was long. It ended with a typical pantomime custard pie fight involving amongst other the Mad Hatter played by John Hyde, March Hare by Karen Morris and Alice by Holly Reime. However, the interval needed to be where it was simply to clear up the mess made by the custard throwing! It was evident all those involved in the ‘fight’ enjoyed it as much as the audience did!!

In act two we met a few further characters. Richard Belcher played a convincing Captain Hook who, although only a cameo role, made the most of the time on stage alongside Bernadette Lucas as Smee and Lily Murray as Red Riding Hood. I particularly liked the costume for the Wolf worn by Heather Belcher. It consisted of the Wolf in Grandma’s nightie.

There were some good musical numbers especially those involving the younger members of the cast such as ‘When I Grow up’ and ‘Little People’ congratulations to all the junior members of the cast (YoungQUADS) you did yourselves proud.  

Yes, there was some dropped lines and a couple of places where cast members needed assistance with the script, but these occasions took little away from the over all result. There was one time when a young member of the audience told us all they knew the joke which caused the cast to corps but hey this is panto and you have to expect the unexpected.

As for the venue well a lovely and large ‘village hall’. Unlike the more traditional village halls Quinton and Admington does not have a purpose-built stage. I was fascinated to see what the society had built- clearly not for the first time. The stage was framed by a proscenium arch with screens down stage left and right to enable the cast to make entrances and exits in addition to the exits from the stage itself.

The use of back cloths was ingenious in the use of cardboard carpet rolls and a system of pulleys. However, the quality of the artwork was amazing, and I was interested to later hear about how these are designed and created.  I liked the great hall cloth with a fire place, the forest scene including an owl, the panto bedroom and especially the one used in the Mad Hatter scene- cloud Cuckoo Land.  Many congratulations on whoever painted these either for this year’s production or in the past.

The society has recently managed to invest in some LED lighting and these were used well during the performance such as the under the sea scene.

Finally, I need to mention the costumes. My understanding is many were made for this production as well as others from the ‘wardrobe’ section of the society. These were of good quality and in line with the characters with many not looking out of place on a much larger stage.

Once again congratulations to all and I look forward to future performances by QUADS. 

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