Once Upon A Time

This was a refreshing change for a pantomime, with a script that moves the usual panto characters on a generation with Snow White’s son Prince Marvellous about to marry Cinderella’s daughter Princess Lottie, where almost every panto character ever is invited to the wedding and the Evil Witch Evelyn out to stop it at all costs to break the curse as the wedding will end all evil. Meanwhile Snow White and Cinderella squabbling between themselves over who has the better story.  And returning after her successful debut with Sleeping Beauty last year, Hannah Whiffin takes on the directorial role once again.

The excellent set, which was built by Ian Whitfield had Sixteen scenes, eight in each half which zipped us through the story, with depicting amongst others: Cinderella’s palace gardens, Princess Lottie’s Bedroom, several different forests, Neverland and a wonderful Madhatter’s Tea Party. But we started in front of the tabs with a meeting of the Nastily Immoral, Terribly Wicked and Indescribably Troublesome Society or NITWITS for short being held by the wickedest Witch, Evil Evelyn! When at the end of the ‘meeting’ the curtains then opened we were in front of the gates to Cinderella’s Palace Gardens.

The props department of Jane Rogers and Judith Davis did a marvellous job especially with all the props for the Mad Hatters Tea Party and the underwater scene with all the fish, sea creatures and the Jelly Fish umbrellas made by Helen Foster! Very clever!

Lighting by Andy Burrell was excellent, lit all the scenes perfectly and cued spot-on. Amusingly, Andy’s trademark is throwing random moving patterns across the set, which all adds to the fun.

Sound Design and Operation was by Mike Bernard and Rachel Dunbar, which was crystal clear and also ran without a hitch.

The costume department, Olive Swain, Ann Swan and Christine Turner obviously had a field day kitting out the various panto characters that appear in this show from, Snow White and Cinderella to Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan, Belle, Elsa, Ariel, Captain Hook and his pirate gang, Alice, The March Hare and The Mad Hatter, thus brilliantly displaying an entire range of panto characters costumes.  And there were striking costumes for Cinderella, Princess Lotte and of course the Dame, Gertie The Cook was as outrageously dressed as you would expect. Not to forget the colourful outfits for Nick and Nack. Add in some outlandish makeup by the cast with some volunteer help and our characters were complete.

One of TOPS strengths is that they have an excellent well-established band, this year named ‘The Palace Orchestra,’ consisting of Musical Director Mike Bernard on Keyboard and Bass, Lin Hetherington on Violin, Justin Pisani on Guitar and Phil Butcher on Drums. Providing the tunes to over a dozen songs throughout the show from ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’ to ‘Truly Madly Deeply’ and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ to ‘A Thousand Miles,’ and all-time favourites ‘Five Hundred Miles’ ‘If I ain’t Got You’ and ‘You can’t hurry Love.’ Great job guys!

To accompany the various numbers there was some excellent and clever choreography by Gemma Crosby and Yasmin Sales, especially as it is a small stage for this sizable cast, so with room for movement somewhat restricted the use of hand and body movements were particularly impressive.

Our actors were all value for money from the Evil Evelyn (Yasmin Sales) eliciting the compulsory boos, to The Royal House of Cinderella, with a not quite so sweet as the fairy tale would have to believe, squabbling Cinderella (Gemma Crosby) A demure Princess Lottie (Amy Carson) and Cinders forbearing  Husband, the first generation Prince Charming (John Pickering ). Not to forget our two bumbling Idiots Nick (Dylan Wadsworth) and Nack (Bailey Francis). They were excellent value with terrific energy and especially with their slap stick, ‘Nick Nack Paddy Wack’ at which point they clip each other round the back of the head to great merriment. They also did a great job with the community song of ‘This Old Man, which we all joined in with great enthusiasm.

The Royal House of Snow White where Snow White (T Savage) as mother of the Groom gave Cinders as good as she got, with her long-suffering Husband, our second Prince Charming (Harry Ashby) alongside her and rather wishing they’d all be nice to each other. We had a lovely romantic Prince Marvellous (Lilia Florence) and his best friend Jack (Chris Greenaway) who’d had a spot of trouble in the past with some unruly beans. And of course, we had the outlandish Gertie, the Cook (Jamie Tipple), looking for his 5th husband amongst our audience. Sadly, no luck! Add in a what was in programme as ‘Our Amazing Ensemble,’ of mainly youngsters who sang and danced their hearts out and we had a really good pantomime on our hands.

We had all the traditional ‘Oh Yes it is’ and a behind you scenes with the Wolf (Emila Sutton) scaring the pants off Red Riding Hood, Nick and Nack and we even had a magic mirror (Olive Forster) telling Cinders a few home truths. All great fun, much enjoyed by the good citizens of Over and surrounding district as witnessed by the packed house!

So well done to Director, Hannah Whiffin, her cast and crew on, firstly for choosing this highly unusual but entertaining script and secondly for what turned out to be a great fun evening.

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