Sleeping Beauty

Alnwick Playhouse provided an excellent venue for Alnwick Theatre Club’s production of Alan Frayn’s version of ‘Sleeping Beauty’.  The set and cloths were colourful, and the super dance routines from the  ‘Alnwick Acadamy of Dancers’ gave good support to Chris and Heather Howey’s quite innovative production.

There were quite a number of novel features in this production, and of particular note was the prince being played by Helen Gee as a brash ‘Geordie’ giving a humorous touch of local flavour to the show. All the usual pantomime themes were present, including a new dame, Trevor Hughes, resplendent in his costumes, bad witch Susan Joyce, who cackled convincingly, and Peter Biggers, who worked hard as the loveable ‘Muddles’ to successfully encourage the audience to join in.  Another newcomer to a principal role was Merryn Hughes, who played the part demurely in character, whilst comedy duo ‘Fetch and Carrie’, respectively Daniel Watkins and Lisa Gladstone, made us chuckle with their antics on stage. Other principals and the well-schooled chorus and children provided entertaining support.  As always in pantomime, good triumphed over evil, and when it was the audiences turn to join in they readily did so with great gusto, a fitting end to the successful show enjoyed by the appreciative audience.

On a note of concern, please make sure in the future that children invited on stage are limited in number, and that there are stewards in place to ensure safety in helping them on and off stage. Thank you for your invite backstage, and it was lovely to meet the cast and production team and acquaint with faces old and new.

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