Saving Santa

For my first outing of the new year, it’s always a very warm welcome received at Blakeney to this creative and imaginative community theatre group, and there’s always something unexpected as the latest in house written script, full of present-day themes and jokes are presented to the audience.

This time we had a Christmas themed story, written by Peter Franklin, where the story opens, with Santa facing a judge and jury facing charges of the neglect of Christmas. Some cast members played numerous parts throughout each scene.

Leading the story were Will Osborne, as the unfortunate Santa, who ended up in the opening scene having fruit and vegetables thrown at him by the vociferous jury, and Roger Combe, as a plutocrat Doctor Evil type baddy Mazanon, who has built his business empire around global dominance of the delivery of technology related Christmas gifts to all the children in the world.   Will and Roger played these parts very well, with humour and particularly good comic timing.

The set was up to the usual high standards, Santa’s workshop having a log cabin effect, and the scenes in Mazanon’s apartment having a Manhattan nighttime skyline view was excellent.

Songs that were delivered sporadically throughout the show by the cast and three minstrels who popped up throughout the story, were supported by a great sounding 3-piece band. Costumes were particularly good, a lot of work for the in-house creative team of Barbara Franklin, Cathy Sinker, and Maureen Buckey.

With Santa’s business in debt and assets such as the reindeer being sold off to keep afloat, Mazanon sends a team of his executives to finish it off by offering a turnaround and rebrand doomed to fail. It was great to see Sue Andrews back on stage, with a fantastic portrayal of Angelina, as the lead of the said executives. Now I was not expecting a Camel ( or should I say a Dromedary) to appear in the North Pole, but enter Feeltelbaum, (a fantastically made article manoeuvred brilliantly by Jane Temple, Barbara Franklin and Amy Howes), who eventually saves the day pulling Santa’s sleigh to deliver the Christmas gifts as Mazanon’s business empire is shut down by being taken offline by Santa.

I really enjoyed the “virtual synchronised swimming” routine at the beginning of Act two, and there were several very good performances from other members of the cast. Jennie Blowers as executive Strudel was excellent-The scene where she had to conduct an appraisal of the grumpy elf Gizmo (Dave Buckey), was hilarious. Speaking of hilarious, the hillbilly relations of Mazanon, Elmer (Martyn Scott), Waylon (Erich Roch), and Moose (Finlay Newton), were brilliant, especially the accent and Deputy Dawg (for those who remember him) type laugh of Moose. The rest of the cast were also on fine form, including some very nice choreography and the usual tap routine. This was a very enjoyable evening.

My congratulations to Director Peter Franklin and all at Blakeney Players.

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