Rapunzel

Rapunzel does not appear very often on the ‘panto circuit’ but MOS are lucky to have the talents of  script writers Stuart Clements and Harcus Copper to make this ‘tangled tale’ into another sparkling production.

Kate Garraway (television presenter) was the voice of the prologue narrator who gave us the beginnings of the story of how a drop of sunlight fell to earth and became a magical flower, stolen by an old lady named Grimm for her own use to keep her young. Many years later the King and Queen, expecting their first child, found and used petals of the flower to cure the Queen’s illness. When  Rapunzel was born, Mother Grimm realised that the flower’s power was in Rapunzel’s hair and if cut, would lose it’s power, so she kidnapped the young child and kept her locked in a high tower and raised her as her own daughter.

Etta Williams was delightful as Rapunzel but the star of the show, for me, had to be Stuart Clements as her friendly chameleon, Pascal. He played this lovable character as a cross between ‘Lumiere’ from ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Rene’ from ‘Allo, Allo’ and a touch of the terrible French accent of Officer Crabtree. The love interest came in the form of Prince Albert (Donna Clements) together with her, sorry his, companions Westley (Amy Simpson) and Sebastion (Lyndsey Ubergs) who seek out the thief who stole the princess’ crown. The thief, in the form of Fynn Strider (Lee McQueen), is also pursued by the comedic trio of Andre (Ian Cronin) Fezzik (Guy Underwood) and Vizzini (Harcus Copper). The nasty in the whole thing was Lloyd Newstead, as Mother Grimm who was suitably nasty to poor Rapunzel. King Leon (Peter Barlow) and Queen Martha (Jacqui Simpson) played their supporting roles well.  

You cannot have a good panto without good scenery, which in turn has to be augmented by spot on (sorry) lighting and to keep the pace going, there must be slick scene changes. All these elements worked very well thanks to Mike Baines as technical manager and stage manager Ian Mackenzie with his back stage crew.  The bright colourful costumes were absolutely superb.

The chorus and the dancers backed up the principals very well, and with the music in the very capable hands of Phil Hughes on keyboard and Chris Hall on drums. Donna Clements’ choreography was imaginative and, well done to Karen Hopkins, the children’s choreographer, who were once again quite delightful.

I brought my (nearly) 6 year old grandson with me again this year and I asked him which bit he liked best. “ The bit where the old lady turned into dust” Typical! 

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