Sleeping Beauty

‘Sleeping Beauty’ was a colourful panto: with its home-grown director and locally-written script it was full of laughs, classic and topical jokes and amusing, crazy characters, all of which combined to make a cracking evening’s entertainment.

Senior flower-fairies Anemone, Bluebell and Dandelion were a delightful trio, who pranced and sang (loosely-speaking) their way through the story, bringing plenty of laughter and liveliness to the Palace and the Petrified Forest.  Each had a distinctive character, with an organised, sensible leader (Anemone), a sprightly dancing fairy (Bluebell) and a feckless, nice-but-dim Dandelion, whose Wellington boots fixed him firmly to the earth.  The younger fairies were ably led by Bilberry, Marjoram, Mistletoe and Violet, who flitted daintily through the story and seemed frequently to be more grown up than their SNIFF leaders, who insisted on a ritual of silly movements to ward off the evil of Carabosse.  Carabosse and Henbane were strongly-played, and although it would be good to see Carabosse given more lines to build the wickedness in the character, she did a good job and has a wicked laugh.  Henbane, the trembling sidekick to Carabosse, was a wonderful character, whom the audience came to love: a masterly performance.  Yet more comedy was provided by Jingle the Jester, who, resplendent in his colourful costume, trod a fine line between wit and insolence at Court, made us all laugh, and was mentor to the young Bellow the Herald, whose vocal projection was very good.  Dame Dockleaf was the classic pantomime nurse, whose care of the young Princess was largely overtaken by her desire to win a man.  King Forget-Me-Not and Queen Hyacinth bickered perfectly.  Princess Peachblossom was portrayed as a gentle character, a foil for the determination expressed by thigh-slapping Prince Robin Reliant.  Courtiers were involved in the joke-telling and did it admirably.

Laryngitis had the upper hand at times, but the Queen made good use of diction and used her performance skills well, so that we lost none of her meaning; the Earl of Essex could rarely be heard; others carried on regardless and all songs were sung with gusto.

Visuals were attractive in this production, with a splendid Palace backdrop; a beautifully-lit woodland ballet with fairies and animals; a very spookily-lit haunted forest with masked ghouls and creepy music; a memorable power-fairies pose from the flower-fairy trio; a gigantic black dragon (we were so sad when it was killed!); a nice tableau as the sleep-magic weaves its spell; and bubbles and torchlight later.  Costumes were lovely, and make-up was often colour co-ordinated with these, particularly for the Jester and the Dame.

This is a script which is topical, full of local references, and which invites laughter and involvement.  Congratulations to SDC for producing really good writing, and to your promising new Director for tackling the traditions of pantomime.

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