Rapornzel

Panto in June, well yes, it does happen, but this was not for the children, this was an Adult Panto. Panto is not necessarily my favourite genre and Adult less so. So here I was on a hot Summer’s evening in Mildenhall Social Club watching a Pantomime.

Rapunzel is a well-known story and we had all the elements here albeit with an adult twist turning it in to Rapornzel. In fact, I rather enjoyed this version, we had the Fairy, the King, the Evil Witch, the Prince and Princess, the Silly Billy character, the Pantomime Dame and Dancers and even an audience sing-a-long. There was a simple black draped set with a well-built Rapornzel’s Tower to the left of the stage and coloured lighting illuminating the back wall. This was a show that did not need any elaborate set, the costumes and the humour was all that was needed, it was the cast that made the show so entertaining.

We met first of all Hairy Fairy Dandruff – Matthew Darkins who gave us a very entertaining evenings performance, good timing, not afraid to pirouette in his baggy white ‘tights’ and tutu, excellent facial expressions and the ability to cheer the audience and the ability to be laughed at without a grimace in place, great fun. I suppose competing against him was our ‘wicked witch’ Mother Fucker – Cassandra Fisher, an imposing figure in her costume and make-up, her actions and dialogue made her an easy figure to boo and hiss, she delighted at encouraging the audience to react against her and she held them in her hand as she twisted and stalked around the stage, her wicked personality came across well. There’s always a beautiful princess and we had here Rapornzel, beautifully played by Amy Cahill, Amy not only looked the part, she sounded the part with nice vocals. Daintily traipsing around the stage, looking endearingly and provocatively at the audience, draping her golden locks from the tower and having a good rapport with her handsome Prince, Prince Ride-Her played by Joe Ward, this was a good piece of casting and Joe plays this role with panache, great and clear diction, and as befits a Prince good stage presence and I enjoyed his natural accent. To keep the Panto theme we had King Merkin with his enormous appendage played by Dominic Bunten, how he managed to keep a straight face throughout I don’t know, this was a great performance. Then of course we have the Dame and his side kick, Pascal the Rascal was a good fun performance from Kiran Parsons, displaying the simplicity of the side kick, but bringing fun to the audience at the same time. The audience supported him with his antics and particularly shouting for him when anyone approached his giant pair of scissors knowing what abusive response they would get.

It’s always difficult to know where to go with a pantomime dame, do you big up his make-up or his costumes, well I don’t think that Dame Fanny Follicle, aka Edward Bye would have any problems here. With those legs and high heeled he could be a dame anywhere, a really striking range of well-fitting costumes and great makeup Edward definitely knew how to pull the audience into the adult humour of this show. We also had four provocatively dressed dancers who had many costumes as they danced their way through the show, this was a well-choreographed team, great timing and vocals and were a major part of the entertainment, not surprising that Chloe Gilbert and Alisha Darkins were so good as they were joint choreographers, they were joined by Bryony Jayne Hewitt and Louise Cywinski making a up this well drilled dancing foursome.

I wondered in advance how I would like this pantomime re-interpreting this well-known tale into a story of inuendo, sex toys, sexy costumes and language I wouldn’t even use in private. Great sound and good lighting, this was a show that was well cast, entertainingly performed without a blush, well delivered inuendo, clear and uncompromising dialogue. Great costumes and props suitably defining all characters, good vocals with a wide number of songs, just don’t ask me who sung which and a great community sing-a-long, I haven’t heard ‘If I were not in a………..’ for about 25 years, I much enjoyed the energy of the four dancers in that routine.

Thank you for an entertaining evening and your hospitality. My congratulations to Mandy and the whole production team.

 

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