Puss in Boots the Panto

This society has the art of pantomime down to a tee. Every year they turn out fun, community entertainment of a good standard, this year being no exception. Adventurous as they always are, an original script was chosen, directed by a talented, young ‘first timer’. Waiting for curtain up allowed appreciation of the imaginative, artistically painted set with excellent perspectives and featured reproduction advertising slogans from sweet manufacturers along with a display of literally hundreds of lovingly made ‘prop’ sweets. What a labour of love! Mr Fry would have been so proud.

No traditional fairy opening for this group, instead we have a ‘fairy mix up’ an ‘Elvis’ look alike with a pink punk wig to boot! Younger chorus performed an extremely ‘happy’ version of last years ‘most played song’ with masses of energy, getting the adrenaline well and truly flowing. Chorus looked bright and colourful as if they had just stepped out of a child’s paint box. It was refreshing to hear their one liner’s delivered loud and clear. The young chorus danced their socks off just about covering every genre of dance. Looking as if they were having the time of their lives, they performed some impressive choreography with crisp and fluid movement.

A creative lighting plot was given full rein during the ‘Ghost Buster’ number, helping it achieve that oh so important ‘pumped up’ performance that keeps pace thundering along. Sound struggled with what appeared to be a faulty head mic., backstage talking could also be heard on occasion through the system, to be fair, in all probability due to ageing equipment rather than management!

Strong performances from principal cast kept everything firmly together. Dame Dolly Mixture was instantly recognisable as her name implied, adorned in a fabulous array of costumes which were matched by others worn by cast. A wild and wacky looking Candy and Floss, whose on stage ‘loudness’ was funny in itself but as a natural double act, they bounced off each other quicker than a game of ping pong, their antics inducing huge hilarity. A mini ‘puss’ moved with creative agility  while the baddie, Queen Griselda was loud and bold with that ability to make children stop in their tracks with just a stare, an ideal pantomime performance.

The script was clearly defined although it was unusual not to see the actual ‘puss’ character until much later into the story. Some excellent touches such as ‘selfies’, canon fired sausages and the tipping of cast from a wheelbarrow into an exit on the stage floor all added to the fun and humour that was rife in this production.

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