Robin Hood & the Babes in the Wood

Half term panto fever had definitely hit Cheadle and resulted in what looked like a sell out crowd! And I can’t imagine any one of them had even the slightest regret in coming out on a rainy Friday night given the show that they were treated to! We shouted, we cheered, we booed and we groaned our way through an excellently executed panto which made good use of the venue’s facilities and quirks. CATS are nothing if not inventive in using a variety of spaces and this was no exception.

The production made use of the space within the school hall but also went “outside” by way of a pre-recorded video and a big screen which gave us a fantastic chase sequence through the local town. We had plenty of local gags too which a home crowd always likes. Any line gaffs were hilariously sorted out and even the prompt was in fits of laughter! Got to love a bit of improv in the middle of a panto!

The set was very well done for the space and even managed a bit of trickery such as “flying” arrows! Costumes were great and there were lots of them with the Merry Gang donning many a disguise throughout the evening and of course, the dame treating us to many costume changes. Although, not sure if that see through nightie was a treat but it was certainly an experience!

Sound and lighting were great, no issues with volume. I did like the “badda boom” drum beat to underline some of the jokes as I often think you can lose some really funny gags in panto given that it is so fast paced so this device allowed the audience not to miss out. There had been some great adaptations of the song lyrics to fit both the locale and the storyline.

Our hero Robin (Eve Litchfield) returns from the crusades to his home village of NotALot to find the villagers desperate to keep up with paying their taxes. Eve’s portrayal was perfect panto principal boy for me as her character led quite the motley crew of merry men, er I mean people, to stand up to the Sheriff of Staffordshire (Oh no, not the Sheriff of Staffordshire!). Ian Wood as Nurse Nora, the traditional panto dame was hilarious and I ended up not sure if the line fluffs were intentional just to squeeze a few more laughs out of us. Jessie Austin as Norbert Noggins was also laugh a plenty every time Norbert was on stage.

All of the merry people were excellent with the constant dressing up in the names of disguises with a particular nod to Stephen Haines as Will Scarlett for making both red tights and a viking helmet look very fetching and Samantha Hughes-Johnson as Tina Tuck for the great vocal (not that they ever let you finish!), but the whole gang were great!

Rounding out the cast were Eden Leigh as Maid Marian (a very nice duet with Robin!), very confident performances from Megan Probyn and Hazel Evans (as Prince Arthur & Princess Martha) a cameo from Isaac Ellerton as King Richard and a funny performance from Jason Greenwood as Chester the Jester.

I am forgetting the Sheriff you say? Oh no I’m not! Played exceptionally well by Dan Ede-Smith, the Sheriff was the ultimate panto baddie we love to boo. Looked the part (evil), acted the part (super evil) and then got his comeuppance in the end!

The ensemble and dancers were great, adding depth to all the scenes they were in right to the very end.

A great Friday night out was had by all and I very much enjoyed my evening too!

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