Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood

After a warm welcome from chairman Laurence Barnett we were taken by Alan a Dale (Josh Francis), who is possibly the worst guitar player in Sherwood, to the forest with its brightly coloured cartoon style trees to meet Robin Hood and his merry men.

Robin (Beth Robertson) is the typical thigh slapping, sword wielding, demon with a bow character that you would expect and complete with green tunic and thigh length boots gives us everything you need from a principal boy. There are two main merry men with him, the ever hungry Friar Tuck (Ian Taylor) and “I will fight anyone” Little Joan (Maris McCann), both giving their all to the songs and routines they share with Robin and this combined with some good comic touches makes this a solid and entertaining little group. Where would a Panto be without a love interest? It appears as Maid Marion (Lillian Carver) who enters the group disguised as a man. however, when she is revealed to Robin in her true guise he immediately falls in love with her and we are treated to a love duet, well sung and choreographed.

 Brace yourselves because at this point in the story we are treated to a whirlwind of northern delight as Winnie Widebottom (Zac Sowter) blasts her way on to the stage. The babes nurse, wearing an amazing wig, beautiful frock and suitably outrageous make up bombards us with crisp, quick, clear and funny one liners whilst accosting members of the audience. This was a glorious dame whom everybody could not help but like.

Nice stuff over, we now meet the nasty of the piece The Sheriff of Nottingham (Tom Key) , if you want to know about “timing” in the theatrical sense then just watch this performance, this was a delight, I love his “double takes”, (and he found time to be the Musical Director). He was very ably assisted by Dennis (Jack Morter) who gave us a suitably under educated henchman with a heart. The pair then proceeded to give us a song and some very flexible dancing which made the audience hoot with laughter. Working with Tom, Jack cannot help but thrive and this was a very good ,confident performance.

It has them in the title so at long last we meet the babes, not your regular type characters. (**At this point it would be wise to say that Old Buckenham are an adult group and cover a wide age range**) Tommy (Fred Nash) and Tilly (Pam Nash) are two of the less young members of the company and suitably attired in their onesies were extremely convincing as two less than 10 year olds.

Three other members make up the entire company, so it would be remiss of me not to mention them. Two fun loving forest bunnies (Richard Crawley) and (Isla Butcher) appear at various times in the show to comment on goings on and disappear even quicker when pies or stews are mentioned. Shame that we did not see the Bunnie Ballet, they looked so cute in their tutus. This just leaves Chorus (Joan Hocking) who was singing and dancing away behind with her usual enthusiasm. We enjoyed pelting these three, when they were palace guards, with the plastic rocks but not as much as the school had done the night before apparently. One brave member of the audience was given some dialogue to perform on stage in the finale and in a village panto this was enjoyed by a very appreciative audience.

This Ben Crocker Script made the cast work extremely hard to achieve the laughs and reactions that we expect in panto. So full marks to Director and cast, they more than managed to give us a totally home grown and very entertaining show.  

A special mention to Maris McCann for designing and making the wigs for the Dame they were amazing.

 

 

 

Directed by Chris Morter

Produced by Jennie Reavey

Musical Direction by Tom Key

Choreography Emma Rogers and Sharon Morter

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