Peter Pan

It was good to see so many families, most of whom I would imagine were from the village, coming along to support the local panto, on what was a rather damp and dreary afternoon. 

I loved the brilliant opening featuring Peter Pan (just a dummy of course but don’t tell the children!), flying through the auditorium on a wire and disappearing through a curtain to the left of the stage. At this performance there was a slight hitch when the feet were reluctant to disappear, resulting in a false start to the proceedings. I did think at the time that it may have been better to just carry on as though nothing had happened, rather than risk drawing attention to the wayward feet.  However, things were soon back on track.

Peter Pan was very well played by Jake Smith.  I thought last year that he had a good connection with the audience and as the title character this year, he once again proved himself to be really at home on stage, relaxing into the role and getting the audience, especially the children, on side.  I hope he plans to broaden his theatrical experience.  Verity Lowe made a lovely Wendy.  Another talented young performer who obviously enjoys being in pantomime. Well done also to Rose Mills as Michael and Alan Adamec as John.

Tinkerbell was well played by Poppy Mills as was Shadow by Bex Denning. There were also good performances from Steve Woolmer as Captain Hook, Caroline Smith as Tiger Lily and Anna Potts as PC Plod. The gradual destruction of her costume was well carried out.  Paul Ison, Sheila Bronson and Steph Manning made a lively threesome as Flea, Glee and Smee.

Every pantomime of course needs a Dame.  I’m sure Simon Bellotti did his best to take on the character of Dame Betsy although he didn’t seem particularly at ease in the role. I made a note at the time that he appeared to be miming other characters’ words while they were speaking.  This may have been a form of self-prompting, but whatever the reason it really needs to be done without moving the lips!

All the cast looked as though they were having a great time on stage but not everyone was sure of their words, which meant there was quite a bit of prompting, resulting in the action slowing down at times.  I did notice that one or two members of the cast appeared to be laughing between themselves on occasions. This was more noticeable in the second half. There is often a certain amount of ad libbing in panto but it should be for the amusement of the audience and I didn’t feel this was always the case here. 

That said, for the most part this was a very nice panto with some good action including a great sword fight.  It was well costumed with good musical accompaniment by the band under the direction of Theresa Lowe.

The scenery was well thought out and the pirate ship situated down stage left worked really well.  Lighting and sound were good.

Congratulations to Steph Manning on writing and directing this production. 

Thank you for inviting me.

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