Journey to the Centre of the Earth

This was St Ambrose first pantomime in over two years and I bet they were glad to be back with their take on “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” written by David White. When I saw the title I thought, 'I wonder what David has come up with this time',  'how can this story be made into a pantomime?' But I need not have worried as this was an excellent production from beginning to end with a well crafted storyline which was easy to follow that had lots of interesting characters, There were witty gags, good punchlines all nicely delivered by the cast with lots of audience participation.

The show was directed by Sarah White with Beth Wharton as Assistant Director, who produced a very enjoyable well balanced production. They had at their disposal a very strong cast which included the indomitable Siobhan Edge as Professor Babblingbrook, Siobhan has excellent comic timing  which was more than evident in her strong performance in this role. David White, as Cora Napple, gave a very good performance as a traditional Pantomime dame with a very dry sense of humour, working well with other cast members .Oliver Grindrod as Hans and Phreya Unitt as Gretel were both very well cast and made a really good pantomime couple and Phreya sang beautifully especially her solo "Skyfall." Very well played both of you.

Jamie-Lee Holmes as Axel performed with lots of bubbly energy delivering comedic lines with good timing and working nicely with Paige Sanders as Ruby, Axel’s love interest, who complimented Jamie-Lee very well making another good Pantomime couple and both working very well with the audience. Nicola Preston also worked well with the audience as Countess Ranalda McDonald, the professors competition in their race to get to the centre of the earth. She was very sneaky and underhand and was determined to win at any cost. Nearly every baddie in Pantomime has henchmen and on this occasion there was no exception.The henchmen were two comedic entertaining fools who were a  great foil to Nicola’s character, namely Malt (Mac McCormack) and Lava (Fraser Bruce). The evil Fire Witch was played by Lyndsey Gornall who was suitably evil and menacing, she got plenty of boos from the audience when she came on stage, well done everyone.

I would just like to mention some cast members who played small cameo roles they included Kerry Chippendale and Cerys Clark as Stone & Flint, Ava Reynolds as a spider, Beth Wharton as shark and, last but not at all least, well done to Vikki Watson and Mandy Stanton who played milkshake the cow.

The chorus of adults and children worked hard supporting each other as well as the principle cast and appeared to be enjoying themselves performing the musical numbers enthusiastically. The well thought out Choreography by Kerry Chippendale and Megan Torkington included various types of dance which was nicely and proficiently performed by the dancers

Musical Direction was provided by Judith Oaks who had a mixture of different types of songs for the production ranging from Christmas songs to modern film theme tunes the band also played and supported the cast brilliantly

The excellent set and props built by the very talented St Ambrose stage crew, designed by Stage Manager Graham Forrest  and painted by Paul Gregson made a great platform for the actors to work on and there was smooth transitions between scene changes which kept the pace of the show on track. Lighting and sound by Dylan Bycroft and Stephen Porter was generally very good and added to the atmosphere on stage, however I did think some of the microphones were a little muffled at times. Costumes arranged by Tina Smith, Jean Lee and cast were very colourful, it appeared alot of hard work had gone into getting them just right and distinct for each character which added authenticity to the show. Well done to all stage crew, technical crew and all back stage workers, it should be remembered that all the performers rely on the excellent work of the people who work backstage and front of house to enable them to give a good performance onstage and for the production to be a success. All involved with this pantomime should be proud of their work and contributions.

I would like to mention that the pantomime was dedicated to the memory of three of St Ambrose valued and talented members namely Matt Clark, Bev Yates and Lionel Glover who sadly passed away during 2021-2022. They will be missed. There was a special tribute during the performance as instead of the usual community song members of the cast performed the very funny comedy number called “If I Were Not Upon the Stage” which Bev loved.

Thank you very much for inviting me. I had a lovely very entertaining afternoon.

 

 

 

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