Sleeping Beauty

The Penpont Players 

Altarnun Village Hall

23rd February 2019 

Sleeping Beauty

Directed by Ruth Simpson & Alex Bailey

This was my first pantomime  visit to see The The Penpont Players in Altarnun. 

The venue used is Altarnun village hall.  A fairly small village hall with a cosy quaintness to it. 

Seating was at a single level around 10 rows deep. The stage was set in all black apart from a spinning wheel set centre stage. 

The show was announced by co writer and director Ruth Simpson who was also credited with make up, props AND choreography! 

The role of “Harold” in the programme was credited as Alex Bailey but unfortunately due to injury Alex had to pull out and Rosie Sweet was cast into the role at virtually no notice.  

The cheer from the audience as the pantomime started was lovely. It was clear that this is a yearly tradition that is enjoyed by all the village. 

First to take to the stage was Anne Williamson as King Edward.  She has great stage presence and truly brought some comedic timing to her role. I particularly liked the reference to the new born princess being named Dauphinois as befitting a “Jersey Royal” but  of course she is named Charlotte. Befitting as she was aptly portrayed by Charlotte Wade.   Charlotte gave a lovely endearing performance as Sleeping Beauty.  A very competent singer and actress to boot! 

The Kings wife Queen Desiree played by Mo Juby had lovely interaction with the King.  Their was real chemistry between the two of them and when the King couldn’t remember a line it was beautifully laughed off by Mo Juby.  It was lovely as you felt as though they were a real family up there.  

Our “dame” of the show Cookie was played by Steph Bass and is a real credit to this company.   A great comedienne, lovely interaction with the audience and the children both onstage and in the audience.  Her cake making skills in Act 2 were lovely with some aptly Cornish phrases on the oven! 

Her song with Sleeping Beauty and the three fairies was “When I grow Up” it’s not a song I was familiar with but one that I found humming to myself on the journey home. Proof that is was performed to a good standard and caused the infamous “ear worm” with me. 

Cookie also announced the fashion show where Sleeping Beauty tries to find her gown. This was set to the music “Pretty Woman” and was a real fun comedy moment of the show. 

The dress finally chosen for Sleeping Beauty wasn’t all that glamorous when Princess Charlotte first took to the stage but by some sort of fashion origami the gown fell into a beautiful dress.  So simple.  Yet so so clever.  

Our villain of the panto is Bella Donna.  Introduced on stage to the music from “War of the Worlds” and “Devil Woman” you instantly knew you were in for trouble and was a perfect choice of music. The role created by Kate Willans who did a wonderful job of playing an evil witch.  Great delivery of lines and a strong singing voice too.  Her interaction with the audience was great too with plenty of boo’s and hisses from the audience!  

Her two accomplices Ronnie and Reggie the rats were played by Megan Bass and Alfie Branch respectively.  The two were a great comedy duo and really made the audience laugh.  Megan with a particularly high tone of voice could not stop me from smiling every time she spoke.  A lovely role for her! 

Rosie and Ben Sweet as the two heralds had some lovely comedy moments and wonderful improvisational skills when the unexpected happened.  Tegan Wade as Bob the Butler had the audience on her side from the start as the “good guy” and had everyone singing the tune of “Bob The Builder” upon her entering the stage. I’d like Tegan to be more confident on stage.  She has every right to be confident but some lines were lost as they were delivered and I think this was due to nerves.  

The three fairies sent to look out for sleeping beauty were played by three very young member of the cast. Sarah Gurr, Shannon Smith and Gracie Horn playing Fairy Primrose, Bluebell and poppy respectively.  All three girls worked together well and as with a lot of the younger cast members wore  microphones so as not to lose out on any audible lines.  

Our hero (or heroine) of the show  was Prince Richard portrayed by Sue Hearn.  A lovely singing voice and great stage skills made her a very believable Prince. Her song “Little Help From My Friends” was a lovely moment in the show! 

There was a large part of the cast played by very young members of the company. 

Dillan Horn as Little Chef has an incredible amount of talent for one so young.  I do hope he continues in performing as he’s an absolute natural on stage.  No dialogue seemed to phase him at all.  Well done! 

Lauren Hosken as Sue Chef also made a great effort in her role and made me laugh. Both these youngsters should be very proud of what they achieved.  

Ryan Dawes as the Doctor delivering the baby and later as Ollie the Owl also has a great stage craft.  Some great comedy lines that he didn’t put to waste either.   

The sets for the panto we’re fairly minimalistic due to the size and nature of the performing area but to overcome this scenes were projected onto the backdrop of the stage.  

This gave such an amazing effect and one that I certainly wasn’t expecting in a modest village hall.  The effects used were quite incredible, even changing as the actors and actresses interacted with them. 

Whoever came up with this idea is an absolute angel to this company as it made the scene changes so much more dramatic than you traditionally see.  Alex Hearn as the voice of the crystal ball probably had the most fun with this. He had a lot of interaction with other cast members.  A lot of which was projected onto the back drop. His timing was second to none and he did a great job! 

The finale was set to Whams “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” of course in reference to being asleep for such a long time.  You could see from the audience reaction that this group is truly loved and supported by the local village.  

I would say that this is in no small part to Ruth Simpson who seems to take on so many different roles to enable these productions to continue and I take my hat off to her.  

The script was one of the funniest I’ve heard in a long time.  Very up to date with current affairs and definitely some jokes for the adults in there too.  Ruth and Alex are obviously very talented at this and I hope they had as much fun writing it as we did listening to it. 

The costumes for this production  were lovely and credit should go to Rosemary Young for making such an effort.  Cookies costume was a particular smile maker. 

If I had any constructive comments for the future it would only be for some of the younger cast members to take their time on delivery of lines.  I know how when nerves take hold it can be easy to want to get through them quickly. Occasionally lines were lost as the audience were laughing. A hard thing to rehearse when you don’t know how an audience is going to react each night. 

In summary this was a lovely production. The hall was filled with such love for this theatre company and it was clear to see how loved it is in the village.  Thank you so much for a lovely night of entertainment and I look forward to your next production! 

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