Sleeping Beauty

Swavesey RADSOC’s choice of panto this year was TLC Creatives Sleeping Beauty.  A clever take on the famous story with one moral. Don’t eat chocolates from strangers as they make you forget everything.  Fortunately I didn’t eat any.

The auditorium of Swavesey Village College is a large one and the acting area is vast. This creates difficulties when it comes to staging.  The main drawback (no pun intended) is that the tabs move in and out extremely slowly which affected what was a well paced production. Personally I think the decision to close these between scenes was the wrong one as was setting Sleeping Beauty’s chaise and other short scenes in front of them as there is little space between tabs and the first row of the audience. From my excellent seat in the centre of Row E I could not see any scenery or indeed any actors unless they were standing.  The stage crew were very quick making changes which might have been best done in a blackout in front of the blacks.  Costumes were fine and lighting well designed. Sound levels were good and there were no body mic problems.  Excellent sound effects were all nicely on cue.

Using taped music is not always easy for casts but Musical Director Martin Avery had obviously worked the cast well and although it lacked volume in places the Ensemble work was good.  The team of Choreographers Stephanie Fearon-Isle, Peter Holt, Sandra Bauer, Lily Bauer had obviously taken into account the various abilities within the large cast and everyone did their personal best. 

Director Chris Avery had gathered together a large cast with nine Flower Fairies backed up by a six-strong adult chorus and some very good strong principals.  Rachel Isham as Fairy Forget-Me-Not was bright and bouncy with some nice interaction with the audience. RADSOC stalwart John Pickering as Jingling Jerry the Jester revelled in delivering some very silly jokes and worked well with Dame Nelly Nutmeg extremely well played by Ian Farr.  A well matched accomplished pair were Stephanie Fearon-Isle lovely as Princess Rose and Fergus Powell confident and vocally talented as Prince Rhod.  

What would a panto be without a baddie for the good fairy to vanquish?   In this case Malicia one of the baddest of the bad played believably and with great gusto by Marianne Holt. She was brilliant and almost had the adults cowering as well as the children.  She was definitely ‘Bad to the Bone’.

Good support from the minor Principals too: Liz Lightfoot as Queen Doris Prince Rhod’s mother; Phil Bailey and Jude Watson as King Rowan and Queen Iris Rose’s parents. Good assistance to the royal households came from Caleb Holt as Queen Doris’ Guard (and as Shark!), Stanley Abraham as King Rowan’s Guard and well done Andy Howard as the Old Guard. Freya Sellars forsook her fairy costume to be the voice of Chiri the Virtual Assistant. 

Well done to Director Chris Avery, Assistant Director Liz Lightfoot and the teams on stage, back stage and front of house.  It is always a pleasure to come along to a RADSOC production and it was good to see you back at the Village College venue.  Thank you for inviting me and for the warm welcome.

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