Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs

Taking, for the first time, a NODA script by David Crump and Paul Simcox, CUP gave us a mixture of two familiar fairy tales: Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf, and the three little pigs whose house building skills are no match for the same big bad wolf.

We were greeted by a vibrant and colourful set, easily adapted by the efficient stage crew to suit the different scenes, and stepped rostra positioned in front of the stage to increase the acting area. I particularly liked the trees and other ornaments made from balloons by the talented Sue Hindmarch. They added a nice cartoon quality to the set. Lighting was simple but effective and there were some excellent sound effects. Costumes too were very colourful and the clever use of masks for the pigs and a mask and gloves for the wolf conveyed their characters well.

In the title role, Sophie Dulake shone as Red, with excellent diction and stage presence. Kerry Applin was Granny – the Dame of the show – and carried this off well, although I felt his talents were a little underused by the script. He interacted well with the audience and coped admirably with the number of volunteers brought to him for the pie-making scene! Declan Robertsson as Fin was like a bouncy puppy: full of energy, and his enthusiasm was contagious. He easily roused the audience to respond every time he leapt onto the stage and kept the show moving along at a cracking pace. I particularly liked his “Tree of Truth”, dropping apples on people telling lies!

Mark De Salis growled and snarled as Mr Wolf – so effectively that the child in the row behind me had to be reassured many times that it was just a man in a costume! Jenny Van Wijk was splendidly evil as the grasping stepmother Ursula, very much in the Joan Collins mould, and Ryan Richards as Will the Woodcutter delighted us with his singing. Hilary Glanville and Samantha Spivey were spot on as Bark and Trunk the woodsmen, with a nice degree of world-weariness and cynicism. Tricia Roberts, Nadine Darnley De Salis and Jayne Green worked well together as the Trotters (the three little pigs).

The script was fairly punchy and full of excruciatingly corny jokes but, strangely for a panto, didn’t seem to offer much opportunity for singing, which is this group’s forte. It was sometimes rather hard to hear some of the quieter voices against the background babble of the children in the audience, but this was a great afternoon’s entertainment and the whole audience, young and old, went home happy.

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