Sleeping Beauty

This is the first time I have seen a The Bancroft Players pantomime, and I am really pleased to say that it is lovely to see a society producing a traditional family pantomime with all the ingredients of a classic pantomime.

Sarah Farrar did a good job with the music, it is unfortunate that at times on the night I was there, there were issues between the balance of the band and microphones used on stage, I could not always hear the characters singing.

Choreography by Sarah Albert, had obviously been rehearsed, the choreography was simple, but everyone was in time, and in the right direction, well done Sarah this is always difficult when choreographing a pantomime.

King Bentley was played by Russ Hurn and Queen Portia was played by Christine Bunning, both played the roles well, the king is a man after my open heart with his love for sweets, lovely idea used to cover a scene change having the king and queen throw sweets into the audience.

Lord Rupert (Tobin Saunders), Simon (Kelly Jones) and Nanny Knickerbocker (Brian Seat) were the comedy trio.  Tobin had a very good stage presence and good comic timing.  Kelly as Simon had magnificent energy, at times she did distract the audience when she was interacting with the band when other characters were talking on stage.  Brian was a wonderful dame, very much a dame I enjoy a man playing a woman not trying to be a woman! He was warm and audience friendly.  One of my favourite scenes in this pantomime was the wallpaper scene, a classic, traditional, slapstick comedy routine done, with pace and humour!

Leanne Campbell-Phillips as Ghasthag, was a fantastic baddie, wonderful stage presence, super evil laugh, I would have liked to have seen her play and interact with the audience a little more.

Fairy liquid (Louise Harris), Fairy Non-Bio (Amy Walker) and Fairy Nuff (Matt Gray) were the three good fairies.  Amy and Louise played the traditional fairies, and Matt gave us the twist and what a lovely twist, it made the audience smile every time the fairies came on, he had some lovely lines that only a man playing one of the fairies could say.  I am a pantomime traditionalist and Ghasthag came on from stage right and the good fairies entering from stage left, always pleases me.

Knuckles (Gary Sturgeon) and Meathead (Claire Brignall) were part of ‘The Management’ and they made a good comedy pairing.  Again, I liked the twist on the normal pantomime comedy duo, and I really liked the scanner being used as the audience walked in, clever idea!

The set was made by the society and was bright and colourful.  Also, blackouts were not used so pace was good and when writing the script this had obviously been thought about.

Thank you for a wonderful evening, full of the traditions that make pantomime a classic British tradition and thank you to Elliot and the front of house team for their hospitality.

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