Sleeping Beauty

For my first NODA venture out in 2024, it was a pleasure again to attend this year’s pantomime from ODS.  The opening scene was set by ‘Fairy Forget-me-not’ played with a warm somewhat dipsey approach, by Gillie Cowley, but never the less endearing the audience with her forgetful moments. She very quickly came up against the hateful ‘Malicia’ played with great power and presence by Kathy Othen. Dressed in black Kathy provided an excellent performance engaging with the audience in great style. In fact, it’s a while since I have actually been in a mixed range audience that reacted so loudly, to every evil and amusing moment, including a string of corny jokes that we all love to expect.

The jokes were fairly evenly shared out between ‘Nurse Nelly Nutmeg’ played by Chris Marsh, ‘Jingling Jerry the Jester’ played by Alex Fitzgerald and ‘King Rowan of Floribunda’ by David Vas. We had the traditional cooking scene when Nurse Nellie’s cooking skills were pitched against the online  cook Siri the digital assistant – or ‘Chiri’  in this panto scene, three on a bench looking for a ghost who picked them off one at a time (except taking fright at the Dame of course) and the audience joined in with ‘Old Macdonald Had a Farm’.

Sophie Williams played a delightful ‘Princess Rose’, who was later tricked into using the spinning wheel by ‘Malicia’ and she was well matched by the debonair ‘Prince Rhod’ played by Becky Weir. The Prince’s father ‘King Boris’ (Nigel Payne) spoke up well with his suitably superior approach towards the village. ‘Let’s get ready to Crumble’ rap style was good fun and joined by the dancers from the Kirsty Purvis School of Dance who also provided other dancing interludes including and during  a rather spooky ‘What Melicia Wants’ in Act 2.

Good support was also provided by Ruth Hammond (Queen Iris), Tom Oliver (Old Guard), Sarah Earl (Fairy Marigold), Eve Oakley (Fairy Tulip) and Lily Cole (Fairy Daisy) and a well-presented chorus. The costumes all looked good and a lot of work had gone into the sound effects and set of 12 scenes, although I wondered if the rear steps for the finale were really necessary. Piano accompaniment was provided by Lucas Ball, and Jacci Phillips and Lizzie Waterhouse should be congratulated in producing another entertaining evening from ODS. Thank you again for always making us feel welcome.

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