Red Riding Hood

My third panto in a week (oh yes it was!) took me to district 4 newcomers, Caerphilly Players and their pantomime, Red Riding Hood.  I always enjoy going to visit new societies and new places and I thank the society for their invitation.

This production had a real community feel about it with cast members of all ages.  It was also written by two members of the society, which I really like.

Scenery was basic but well-constructed and allowed the action to take place in different parts of the stage.

The society opted to use backing tracks for the musical numbers and these tracks did overpower the vocals a lot of the time, which was a shame as the singing quality was good.

In the tile role, Jennifer Gruffudd shone.  She was engaging and had good character with great vocals in the musical numbers.  Well done.

The production featured crossovers to other well-known fairytales and Red Riding Hood was joined by Robin Hood, played by Kathy Lye.  Kathy did a good job, with a nice character throughout.

The traditional pantomime dame, Granny Hood in this production, was played by Matthew Fisher.  He was everything you’d want in a dame.  Funny, colourful, larger than life and a bit naughty!  Could this be the same man I saw playing a very serious role in a play earlier in the year?   I’m yet to find out but if so, he showed excellent diversity!

Granny Hood’s sidekick, Eustace, was played by youngster, Travis Thomas.  Travis was full of energy and really appeared to be enjoying himself.  This was a lovely performance to watch.

Maid Marion was played by Sadie Moon.  Sadie had a lovely singing voice and performed well.

No panto is complete without the baddies.  They were led by Kev Birch as the sheriff.  Kev was great in this role and had an excellent character.  He even recruited my nine year old daughter to be his helper and she loved this.  Well done Kev and thank you!

Kev was supported by Helen Payton as the wolf and Paris Cometson as Mowgli.  Helen gave a performance full of character, energy and comedy!  She was really great.  Paris had excellent characterisation as Mowgli and the pair worked well together.

Other named characters in the production all did well.

Just a couple of pointers going forwards – try to keep the pace up throughout the production and have a listen to sound balance.

This was my last show visit of 2025.  I’ve had a great year visiting my societies and I look forward to visiting again in 2026.  Thank you, Caerphilly Players, for a great night of entertainment.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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