Rapunzel

The traditional fairy tale of Rapunzel has become a new addition to the current Christmas Pantomime titles and Toby Bradford and Tina Webster’s script has a good narrative while leaving plenty of scope for comic business and a good spread of roles for a large cast of Principals so makes it a good choice for amateur societies. The Shinfield Players production stages this script in a very creative set with some excellent painted clothes with wonderful perspective, clever wing flats that unfold to form the interior of the Palace and the Salon and a very detailed and practical interior of her Tower set upstage. These sets with some excellent costumes for the Fairy, Witch, Brokers Men, the Dame and King and Queen give the show an impressive look and feel.

There are good familiar tunes that flow from the narrative and are sung well by the Principals  with some simple and effective choral support and choreography. The comic business included the traditional ghost business, a slosh scene, some comic business with making a ladder, a very good sequence of hair puns and occasional mild adult innuendo. There could have been more pace in some of the execution but the audience interactions and what appeared to be improvised and ad lib responses were handled very well. 

The central performances of Rapunzel, the Prince, Frankie, the Fairy and Gothel were very strong and drove the story telling well and with a good vocals and music mix the audience were able to enjoy a very good-looking production.

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