Sleeping Beauty

Thank you for a lovely performance of your traditional pantomime, Sleeping Beauty. I really enjoyed the show and meeting you all afterward. I was welcomed by Peter, a member of your committee and I  appreciate chatting about your society and the many adventures your community theatre has gone through over the past few years.

There was a high level of talent onstage. Wonderful harmonies and singing from the cast. With dazzling characterisation and chemistry from the lead actors and the ensemble. Everyone was working hard to achieve a polished performance and the whole show was slick, colourful, and so much fun. The overall look including costumes, lighting, and stage sets, was very good and demonstrated a cohesive approach to the look of the panto. Well done to the backstage people, Martin Brown, (SM), Karen Morgan, (ASM), Oliver Coleman, (Lighting), and the rest of the crew.

I would like to make special mention to the choreographers, both Jack and Marcia’s staging were excellent. The scene with the UV, the wheeled court dance and the ballet elements were especially good, but all the choreography was delightful. The dancers were excellent, well-rehearsed, and I witnessed superb performances from everyone.  The young members of the cast danced well and I really enjoyed their numbers, especially the ballet, the spiders and the ‘rock you’ pieces.

Director Charlotte enticed the audience to participate right from the start and filled the stage with movement and colour for the entire show.  Muddles (Lindsey James) was energetic, audience focused and produced a confident performance. The Good and Bad Witches, Ruth Odell and Katie Proctor also gave strong performances and Katie excelled with her strong vocals during the musical numbers. Prince Alexis also gave a star performance and her singing was wonderful. Beccy Hurrell only took the part of Prince Alexis a few weeks before opening night, so even more kudos to her. Phil Mills and Adele Jamookeeah played the King and Queen and both gave strong polished performances. Fetch (Olivia Eaton) and Carrie (Kelsie Couse) had great chemistry and polished comic timing. Egor (Janet Askew) was very funny and worked well with Katie as Bad Witch Hazel. Brooke Rennie as Princess Rose was strong spirited, with confident vocals and warmth, which the audience appreciated.  Dame was played by Stephen Cox and was sometimes a little awkward, yet Nurse Hettie was a strong favourite with the audience. Stephen you were brilliant, I loved your performance and costumes.

I sensed everyone working hard through the whole production, reacting to the action on stage, filling in the background, which is not as easy as it sounds, and generally bringing energy to every scene. All the lead actors were really good and I enjoyed every moment of the funny well written script.

Live music courtesy of Barbara Hockley, Peter Morgan, and Mike Kilsby, gave a dynamic feel to the musical numbers and with so many wonderful voices and people able to harmonies so well, the audience was treated to a high level of talent.

Thank you front of house and the staff of The Cube for a warm welcome.  Your program and promotional poster were both very good, unfortunately, I cannot enter the program into our competition as is lacked the NODA words required, something to remember for next time. Thank you to the chaperones, without whom the young performers could not join the show.  (Janet Askew and Karen Malcolmson). I generally felt that you are all a hard-working team, who had so much fun on stage I couldn’t help but enjoy the show. I went home humming, which is always a good sign. I look forward to your next production Oliver in June 2024.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.