Sleeping Beauty

A nice welcome was provided after a long drive from King’s Lynn on a foggy night, so I was grateful for the proffered drink and the chance to sit down in the auditorium and prepare myself for the evening’s entertainment. I was clearly not alone as there was a general air of chatter, excitement and the sense that at last we could enjoy ourselves and forget the world outside. As always, I took the opportunity to have a quick read through of the programme before the show started.

It was here that I read that this was a re-writing on the story co-written by the director Mel Wilcox and her husband Rhys, I was interested to see how this would pan out as I have seen some very good ‘amateur’ writing and some not so good, however from the Directors message in the programme this looked as though it should be fine, and it was, although there was an unusual take on the traditional pantomime dames who took on the role of compere/narrator. Between these two, Paul Riddy and Dan Park, in ‘modern; dame costume and the other in ‘traditional’ costume we were introduced to the characters and guided through the story.

The twenty odd scenes guide us through the story much as we all knew it; I suspect the audience would not have wanted the story any other way however there were many additions which had the audience’s approval. Many suitable songs were interwoven into the plot, from original lyrics by co-writer Rhys in the opening number through numbers such as ‘Evil Like Me’ for the wicked fairy Meleficient. The fairies party preparation ‘What Baking Can Do’ from Waitress, Robbie Williams’s ‘She’s The One’. One for the audience ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ which brought fun and laughter with a snowball fight, and as we approached the climax of the story with Madness’s ‘It Must Be Love’ and into the finale with ‘Celebration’.

There were some fine performances and I felt that those of Anna Crompton as Meleficient and Michael Mazzone as her Henchman were great, they worked well together, is it easier to be evil than good? Great performances, voices loud and clear, a bit of tap dancing and both commanding the stage well. Is hard being good, especially when you’re trying to hide a little girl for 16 years? – no magic, well not until she’s 15 years 364- and three-quarter days old and there’s a cake to bake and a dress to make. The three fairies Flora – Zoe Park, Fauna – Mel Wilcox and Vegan – Stacey Callier had great fun and made a right mess of themselves and each other especially in the Baking a Cake scene (pity the poor stage crew).

Debi Sheridan as Aurora had a permanent smile on her face from her first appearance in her pram through to her awakening with a kiss, a fine performer who knows how to please an audience, she was accompanied by her Prince, Jess Riddy and together the two of these performed their roles effortlessly. These principals were supported by two Queens, Linda Riddy, Jo Dorrington-Neville and the two Kings, George Kelly and Edmund Cave together with the rest of the company. Bees Dance Academy provided the chorus and their talents came to the fore with their tightly performed dance routines, very lively, choreographed well, a credit to the dance academy, they also knew how to keep a smile on their faces whilst performing.

The show was well put together and had some excellent costumes and props, the scenery was very effective and changes were generally very slick. There was no problem with the lighting design. Make-up was very appropriate to the different characters. All these back stage requirements and roles have a major impact on a production and there were no issues here. Movement space and pace around the stage was good, interaction amongst the principles was very good. Dialogue on the whole was loud and clear apart from one or two technical glitches and the singing was fine with good performances.

This was a good performance enjoyed by cast and audience alike so congratulations to St Neots Players for accepting a new script, and a new director (for them).

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