Sleeping Beauty

This was a panto where it seems that not only the entire company but the whole community have got involved and they are having a fabulous time: from the introduction by the Director Janine Robins to the whole audience, asking us to be lively and loud and even practice booing; right to the last bow and the waving by the two smallest cast members as the curtain closed. It was a wonderful atmosphere and the delighted audience enthusiastically join in whenever possible.

Great pantos are of course a fairy story with a happy ending and the hero and heroine defying the odds and getting married at the end. The essential ingredients are comedy, a dame, an audience link “Buttons” type, a love story, a great villain you can boo, and lots of catchy songs: and this had just that. The reworded and reworked “Money, Money, Money” sung by the hilarious and standout fairies as “Fluffy, Duffy, Huffy!” (their names) was absolutely brilliant, as was the ridiculous choreography that went with it. This is a moment that stays with the audience long after the show has ended. The Fairies: Geri-Leigh Diana, Gillian Billing and Teresa Carlile were just superb, playing off each other and the other characters in the panto with both great comic delivery and timing. The substitutions in the square dance were laugh out loud funny and went on for exactly the right amount of time.

Mason Schaack was great as the Deli Catessen the Dame, having not only a different and ridiculous costumes each time he appeared, including shark slippers at one point, but also completely different hairstyles and hair colours and headgear. It made all the difference, especially with someone of such height compared to the rest of the cast he was standing with most of the time. This showed lovely direction choices, as did the lining up of all the children on the stage in height order in one scene, which made everyone laugh. As the panto went on he fully relaxed into the role, making it gloriously camp which everyone loved. Kieran Gladman played Jes, the “Buttons” type character interacting with the audience with ease and authentic charm which everyone young and old responded well to.

Christine Linden-Smith was once again a fabulous evil character with manic laugh and encouraging boos and dislikes from the audience, this time as Fairy Grazilda, with the most amazing magical lit up staff. The addition of falling over her dress and getting it caught in different scenes was so natural it was impossible to tell whether it had been planned or not: her reactions, blaming a “wizard” in the audience (an unsuspecting audience member) and feeding off the audience reactions was super.

The whole cast did really well, from Elizabeth Hutton, the super youngest one who looked so tiny in comparison to the others yet delivered her lines with confidence not aligned with her age, to the road workers who just walked on and off again every now and again. All the cast were at ease interacting with the audience which was so lovely to see. The only thing that needed improvement was the sound levels for the music: it was so quiet for the songs for the children to sing that it made them sing quietly and the audience could barely hear them. The whole audience felt sorry for the young couple who tried confidently to sing along to the music but it was so quiet they obviously couldn’t hear it, the audience could barely hear it, but where they could it was obvious that they were singing in completely different keys and in completely different timing. Hopefully as the Panto went on these levels were increased as it was such a shame, they were obviously trying very hard to perform despite the difficulties.

The set, with the painted woodland creatures in the trees either side of the stage and the levels giving it depth, was lovely. The costumes were super as well, especially for the Dame, but also every single person in it. There had been no skimping on quality. The choreography looked lovely and the musical choices were really fun and in keeping with the flavour of the show. It’s a beautifully directed Panto, with everyone coming together and enjoying the whole event. Congratulations to the Director Janine Robins and the entire team for a lovely evening full of warmth, joy, laughter, optimism and joy.

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