Red Riding Hood

The much loved tale of Red Riding Hood certainly turns well into a  pantomime with so many different characters, some lovable and some not!  Hailsham Theatres are always up there with excellent scenery and this time was no exception. We were immediately taken to the lovely village of Windy Bottom – cue for quite a bit of lavatory humour, much loved by children and others!  All the other scenes were ideal and well changed by the crew.

All the necessary pantomime characters were there, starting with Red Riding Hood herself, Aimee Martin giving a delightful performance and pairing well with Marie Saxby as Prince Percival who was a true Principal Boy in every way.

Rob Taylor gave an energetic performance as Simple Simon creating a lot of fun and Douglas Morgan gave us Grandma Hood in his own inimitable Dame fashion.  I swear he has a lot more frocks than I have!  Both really great characters.

Lucy Sarsfield played Decidua, a charming fairy of the woods who made quite sure that everything turned out well and as it should in the end.

Then we come to the baddies!  Count Lupin and Egor – the Count played by Christopher Peck who changed from a gentleman into a wolf with no trouble at all and his evil assistant (Alison Avann) who gave the Count great help in his evil deeds. They deserved all the boos they received!

Hustle and Bustle (Guy Quickenden and Georgia Jones) gave great value to the goings on as did Peter Bowers as Mayor, Diane Morris as Mayoress, Sandra Pink as Nosey Parker the reporter, Mike Farrall as Flash Eddy (photographer), Sue Bowers (Valet) and Nigel Baird (Monster Frank).

All the above were well supported by the ensemble and the A.B. Stage School Dancers with Musical Director Judith Brooke and her musicians playing so well in the pit.  Well done to Emma Dunn as Wardrobe Mistress – all the costumes looked wonderful, as did the set so congratulations to all involved in designing and set building.

Great fun was had by all (including the audience!) but to obtain all this fun a lot of hard work has to be carried out behind the scenes so congratulations to everyone involved in any way under the excellent direction of Ian Ward for bringing another very enjoyable panto to Hailsham once again.

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