PIRATES OF THE PANTO

This was a real village production with an inclusive cast who’s ages ranged from 8 to 80 .

The audience could beat that range, however, ranging from children as young as five to
octogenarians well over 80! Unfortunately, one of the leading characters – leading
pirate ‘Deck’ - was taken ill and the part was played with much gusto by the director
with only three days’ notice. (She was superb!)
All the music was pre-recorded which as a former MD I did not like, but fully
understood the reasoning behind it. The pre-show music was appropriate, if a little
quiet. The programme was colourful and the ‘noda’ logo was on the front cover – thank
you for that! As a personal choice, I would have liked to see a song list in the
programme.
The sets and the costumes were home produced and very adequate for the show.
The first night audience was relatively small, but they made up for that with their good
responses to the usual sort of questions from the stage. The Principal Boy Captain Zac
Sparrow’s every entrance was greeted gleefully whilst the villainous Captain Spongebag
No Pants was greeted with derision – all good pantomime stuff.
The local adaptation saw Capt Sparrow and his group set off to search for the treasure
from the port of Bristol and references to the bad Captain sailing on Cheddar
Reservoir. We had the obligatory custard pie routine. So much foam was used that the
recipient, Squire Swann, almost needed a shower and took ages to clean his glasses -
but it was funny!
The show ended with the audience singing Happy Birthday to Captain Zac and the usual
singalong with children from the audience.
This was a long show, running from 7-30 to 10-18 for this performance but the time
actually passed very quickly. All the characters played their parts well and reacted with
each other. None of the cast were amplified, but I heard almost every word. Well done!
Was the show perfect? Well, nearly, but who cares?. The cast enjoyed themselves and
so did the audience, judging by their enthusiastic applause at the end. It is pantomime
and things go wrong in pantomime, but any errors are soon forgotten.
Thank you for your hospitality before the show, during the interval and after the show.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself and look forward to coming again. Good luck for the
future.
Anthony Pomeroy (Standing in for Julie Kibby)

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.