Rapunzel

The Ury Players Christmas 2024 offering was “Rapunzel” based on the Brothers Grimm fairytale of the same name. Written and directed by company stalwart Tim Roberts this production was bright and colourful and the script full of well known panto jokes and innuendos which were lapped up by the first night audience from the opening to the finale. Rapunzel was delightfully played by Jaimee Hesketh with just the right mix of youthful tenderness in her scenes with Finn (the Wanderer) and feistiness in her scenes when captured by the villains in the piece. She had a sweet singing voice, shown to its best in the duet “At Last I See the Light” with Finn, and a good stage presence. Finn, her saviour and love interest, was strongly played by Joshua G T Horsfall again with a good singing voice and he made a good comic pairing with his side-kick and fellow traveller Dylan, played by the gangly Dawson Horsfall. Their dancing skills were none too shabby either as displayed in their dance off to “Does Your Mother Know” with the excellent troupe of dancing bandits led by Meaghan Peters. Much of the laughter in the show was engendered by Rapunzel’s mother Gothel, played by the wonderful Garry Brindley in his usual larger-than-life dame style. His rendition of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” with Rapunzel was cringingly funny and his antics with Murray Lawson’s King Duncan were a hoot. Kirsty Copeland as the ambitious Captain of the Guard Lord Bunny was eminently boo-able with the boos and hisses increasing in volume from the young, and not so young, in the audience as she grew more confident in the part. The roles of her silly lieutenants Oggy and Oi were in the safe hands of Heather Adams Officer and Andrew Dart respectively and a fine couple of dimwits they made in their steel helmets and blue cloaks as well as fine backing singers/dancers in the Captain's rendition of “You Spin Me Round”. Strong support was given by Heather Stewart as Harold the Herald, Oscar Barnett as the Salesperson and James Campbell as the Messenger. The large chorus sang and moved well from the opening “Somebody To Love” led by King Duncan through “Nine to Five” at the opening of Act 2 to the rollicking “Rockin’ All Over The World” and now traditional finale “Reach”. Due to the restrictions of the stage the sets were kept simple and the scene changes were handled well by the stage crew. Congratulations to everyone at the Ury Players for another excellently funny panto – oh yes it was!

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