Romeo & his Juliet

This was a new Pantomime to me and was written by two of the Society members, Sean Brennan and Damien Shalks. It was fun to watch being full of jokes and visual gags, and was really appreciated by the audience.

There was all the usual Pantomime characters transferred to Italy. It opened to a colouful lively Fairy Floss Tickle (Michelle Andrews) who explained to us about the feud between the Cappuccinos and the Mozzarella. The evil Lady Cappuccino. (Paula Dixon) impressive with excellent costume and makeup. She was aided by her comedy sidekick Ronce-eyal (Diane Bowers) who kept reminding us of the correct pronunciation. She was also plotting to marry Juliet off to Count Sebastian Down (Dexter Tikadar) a simple soul who was very fond of salad (I’m fond of salad too Count).

Their nemesis Lord Mozzarella (Peter Forsyth) lordly and kind, Ben, Di-bus (Zac Smith) who got the audience joining in with enthusiasm.

Romeo(Sarah Smith) and Juliet (Katie Jo Genty) looked the parts with their costume and sang together very well. Unlike the Shakespeare play they managed to live happily ever after.

The Dame, Nurse Risotto(Sean Brennan) was the old fashioned Dame and delivered the throw away lines well and I particularly liked the scene in the Apothocary and the potions. Adding to the comedy of the scene were Friar Burger (Richard Hunt) and Pastor Parcell(Benjamin Hitchen), also. Joni Cannelloni(Deborah Granger).

There were plenty of comedy parts with laughs, jokes, magic tricks, levitation and even an operation on Juliet, carried out behind a lit screen so we could see what Nurse was taking from inside her.

The young troupe of dancers were very good showing gymnastic skills and enthusiasm. All the costumes were excellent, colourful and in keeping with the era, choreographed Katie Jo Genty. Congratulations to Musical Director Peter O’Hare for the singing and his musical baiting of Count Down and also to  the other two musicians Graeme Genty and Jacob Bradley.

It was a new venue for the Society and they designed and built effective scenery which worked well despite the short stage rehearsal time they had.

Well done the director Damien Shalks and all the cast

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