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Sleeping Beauty

Author: Don McKay

Information

Date
23rd March 2018
Society
Catworth Amateur Theatrical Society (CATS)
Venue
Catworth Village Hall
Type of Production
Pantomime
Director
Andrew Moore

I received a nice welcome from the front of house team, into the beverage tent to the side of the hall, which was a nice addition and provided plenty of opportunity for the audience to socialise prior to the performance. The ingenious set, born from necessity due to the tiny stage in the hall, was designed by Stuart Rupp and Suzy Avery, did lots of tricks and was painted colourfully and representative of the scenes, and it was well erected by Paul Goodyer (who also produced) and his team, and Stage Managed by Vivien Reffin. The lighting design and operation by Paul Murphy was good. The costumes and props by Cathy Goodyer and team, were very good and made good use of LED light strings, simple but effective. Steve and Jayne Kaye were the comedy parents of Princess Aurora. Steve also stepped down into the pit to assist keyboard player Gerald Ward on the guitar, and gave good accompaniment for the eclectic selection of songs that were presented to us. Pete King was good fun as King Presley and his son Prince Phillip was played well by Alfie Toseland. The three Fairy Godmothers played by Belinda Moore, Emma McCreath and Phil Ward did well with the wordy dialogue. Ruth Murphy as Malificent and Pippa Ellson made a very good double act. Joe Daniel was a likeable Harry Fellow and Laura Knott was a capable Aurora. Well done to Graeme Nash, Alistair Outram and Julie Daniel for performing with such enthusiasm as well as acting stage crew to change the scenery. Liz Murphy and Rachael McCreath as the Nurse and Courtier also performed with great enthusiasm.

Andrew Moore’s direction was perfectly adequate considering the smallness of the stage, which has the disadvantage of limiting movement in the acting space, so I thought Andrew did a very good job considering the restrictions. Hopefully when the Catworth Village Hall has completed its refurbishment, this will allow for a larger stage therefore more opportunity and scope for more movement and some choreography. 

Phil Ward is a good writer, however there were very few traditional elements of a pantomime and some of the scenes were a little flat because of the wordiness. Having said that, the audience had great time and were thoroughly entertained.

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