Sleeping Beauty

I had to be determined to see The Sleeping Beauty pantomime, performed by Retford Musical Theatre Company, on the night of December 10th – England were playing France in the World Cup (no loss there then), it was a freezing cold night – and two nights earlier my attempts to get there had been frustrated by a massive RTA which held me up near Newark for two hours!!!

Still, I was glad I made the effort. This group clearly has a lot of talented members, and their traditional production of The Sleeping Beauty was worth the wait.

I was warmly welcomed by Vanessa Smith, the chairman of the company, and given five simple triple gatefold programmes which meet the criteria to be entered into the NODA competition, so they are on their way. I noticed a feature which I have seen more and more – a QR code in the programme which allows those with smart phones to get more information from the society’s web page – a great way to generate traffic and cut costs.

Retford Little Theatre is always a welcoming venue, especially so tonight with a ukulele band playing Christmas tunes on arrival, and members dressed in Christmas costumes and sweaters selling refreshments, raffle tickets and programmes.

Now to the production itself. First of all, can I say that the costumes were lovely- sparkly, colourful, humorous. The Dame (Nurse Nancy, played well by Jamie Savage) had a variety of great costumes, and Sam Taylor as Chester the Jester looked suitably silly in his hair bunches and traditional jester’s quartered costume. Everyone else looked smart too, and there were a number of costumes for the chorus in various scenes which were very colourful and appropriate.

Another standout feature was the choreography. Dawn Denman, Molly Staples, and Stacey Hesson had certainly put a lot of thought into the dances, and we saw everything from traditional ballet to jive. The young dancers from the Staples Academy of Dance were excellent, and their costumes were beautiful too. How nice to see young teenage male dancers, so well trained with the poise, skill and strength to help show off the grace and beauty of their young partners.

The pantomime was very traditional, with a dame, a silly boy, a boo-able baddy (Carabosse, played with evil intent by Sarah Mitchell), a good fairy (Oliver Ward as a camp Fairy Cake) with his slightly unruly sidekicks (Emma Parker, Hannah Harris, and Gemma Ambrose). Julie Arnold played the Queen well, and Nancy Hudson as Princess Aurora with her Prince Charming (Josh Parker) were suitably beautiful and dashing as required. Other minor speaking roles were well covered, and I must mention young Willow Shaw-Browne who enchanted as a young Princess Aurora.

The script was written for the society by former member Matthew Siveter, and it followed the traditional story. There were lots of corny jokes, sing-alongs, local references, and some very funny scenes – my favorite was the slicing the cucumber scene, which had the ladies in the audience in stitches – I won’t go into the details!! Overall a good script.

A small band under the direction of Martin Yates provided excellent accompaniment when backing tracks weren’t used. Stage management was slick, props were of good quality, and the sound and lighting were effective too.

So in conclusion, a production that Retford Musical Theatre Company and director Claire Fern can be proud of.

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