Pinocchio

Wow! Well it appears the place to be if you want to see great pantomimes is NODA East district 2, aka Bedfordshire. To a packed Maulden Village Hall on the last Saturday in Jan we ventured to see our third one in as many weeks and Maulden Players were certainly up for the challenge of keeping up the high standard. This year’s offering, Pinocchio was another entirely home-grown affair, this time written by Simon Jeffery, last seen as Robin Hood in last year’s panto. making his debut into the world of playwriting. And what a great script, or should I say, what is it about this small village in Bedfordshire that it harbours such writing talents! Witty and original, with some new off the wall zany characters to compliment the traditional ones from Carlo Collodi’s story. This was well written fun from beginning to end.

Arriving at the theatre there was no sign of a pantomime, instead the walls were lined with posters advertising ‘Stromboli’s Theatre of Oddities!’ A ruse of course, to whet our curiosity. Clever! Such great touches and attention to detail are what makes this group stand out.

Nor do this groups’ talents stop at writing panto scripts, the scenery is simply outstanding, with beautifully designed and painted sets from Geppoto’s workshop to Stomboli’s theatre by an amazing artist, Marion Hynes. The whole set being smoothly changed by Stage Manager Phil Jackson and his assistant Kate Humphries. Jaikob Richardson gave us crystal sound whilst James Canavan-Smith with Alex Whitlock on follow spot lit the set with professional ease.

Costumes and props by Tracy Canavan-Smith and Alison Struthers were particularly well thought out, and with the makeup by Kayleigh Wrigg, Zoe Barke and Emily Glanville this gave a consistent music hall period feel to the whole show. The piece-de-resistance has to be Pinocchio’s expanding nose designed by the playwright himself and Arcade Machine, which really did look seamless in its operation.

Musical Director Ron Chimes was as usual at his keyboard and of course started off with his signature tune of Time is Tight by Booker T. It’s his organ music that gives the group their unique sound. Add to that some lively choreography from Tracy Canavan-Smith (is there anything this lady can’t do?) and we, the audience had a musical treat with some very carefully chosen appropriate songs to the action including Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in The Wall, Black Eyed Peas’ I’ve Got a Feeling and Simple Minds’ Don’t You Forget About Me to name but a few.

This was a very competent and mostly experienced cast led by the old hands but ably matched by some promising new youngsters.

Zep Tocco was every inch the epitome of Geppetto, with a super Italian accent and mannerisms. Zoe Barke keep Pinocchio’s conscience clear as the gender neutral Jiminy Cricket. Young Ava Struthers carried the show as Pinocchio with great confidence and maturity with a lovely singing voice, whilst Chloe Frizzelle was a fine Figaro. Mark Sheppard just burst on to the stage as our Dame, Mamma Mia; he really is the ultimate pantomime dame. Kelei Vickors as the Blue Fairy intervened with sparkle and spells. Andre Sooknanan gave us a super Lampwick.

For the baddies, Francesca Ashby as Dina in harlequin costume schemed in collusion with Edward Frizzelle as the ruthless theatre owner Stromboli. And what can you say about the mischievous pair of James Struthers as Fox and Tracy Canavan-Smith as Cat. Some wonderful facial expressions and some of funniest comments coming from audience adlibs, as James was obviously a popular figure amongst the full house of a partisan audience!

They were ably supported by Stromboli’s assortment of music hall oddities, Rob Murphy as strongman, Hercules, Tayla Blackman as Mustafa Deathwish, and James Forrester as the Lion. And some very clever scenery design with Lisa Ashby and Kayleigh Wrigg as the guards complete with doors fixed to their backs. Brilliant!!

The brilliant subplot of the film crew threw up some of the quirkiest and wittily named characters of the whole show, with Nick Endacott as film maker Francis Ford Cortina, Gavin Blackman as soundman Mike Dropper, Lauren Chimes as the camera operator Cameron Everlies and Ben Michaels doing a brilliant job as the gormless Doug Spotty. Fabulous comedy character acting by these four.

Good support from the chorus of youngsters, Ezri McGrath, Abigail Davidson, Paulinka Kovalikova, Maddie Ashby and Anabelle Flagg topped off a great cast. Well done one and all!

This is the third panto I have seen by this group and it has definitely cemented itself as grass roots theatre at its very best and a lesson in how to put on a pantomime from scratch. Without any fear of contradiction, I can state that Writer and Director Simon Jeffery, Producer Alison Struthers and Maulden Players should be very proud of their annual pantomime. It is, as I’ve said before, a master class in the artform. Roll on next year’s!!

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