Red

This pantomime demonstrated the epitome of ‘home grown’ from start to finish. Written by the director and Julie Salmon, the story cleverly intermingled ‘Red Riding Hood’ and ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and yes, it worked beautifully! Clear and relevant with plenty of comedy and imaginative conceptions, who could have thought the ideal way to get out of an Elvis lookalike wolf’s stomach was to encourage him to burp and be ejected on the outgoing air! Despite a need for trimming some of the unnecessarily padded out scenes, the script held plenty of unleashed potential which could easily be released by a small amount of tweaking. The well-rehearsed, majority young cast, acted with maturity and  discipline, with several showing a natural, confident stage presence. Character interest was sustained by clearly defined contrasts, from the sweet, constantly skipping ‘Red’, to the comical pigs and an officious home help named Chantelle to name but a few! A quintet of musicians provided excellent support to the interesting selection of songs, which were performed to be enjoyable. Costumes and set were bright and colourful while remaining simplistic, suitably appropriate to a small venue and strong characters. Pace and energy faltered on occasion, caused mainly by script repetition, easily remedied for future performance. An X factor take-off, performed in the wolfs stomach, as you do, highlighted the talent of the younger cast. A beautiful performance of ‘Rule the World’ ensured the finale was completed with style. An enjoyable production which induced strong community spirit.

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