Sleeping Beauty

~~On a cold, wet winter’s night it is quite hard to go out to the theatre but this production made the effort very worthwhile.  A practically new production team well presented this age old story.  Like all good pantomimes (and this one was excellently written by Alan P  Frayn) it opened with the good Fairy, beautifully dressed and well portrayed by Megan Murray, who also excellently shepherded her four young Rainbow Fairy helpers.  The opening chorus was well sung, danced and costumed, and we were soon introduced to the Bad Witch Hazel (Katrina McEachran) and funny man Muddles (Jonnie Taylor) who gave the audience, especially the children, many good laughs.  The schoolroom scene, where poor Muddles (Don’t get muddled) was dropped on the floor so many times by the old fashioned school bench, had most of the audience in hysterics.

Nurse Dottie Dettol (Christopher Stewart), for me, was the star of the show.  I have seen Chris in a number of shows for the Players when he has always been excellent, but never as ‘Dame’; his carriage, bearing, diction and mannerisms were perfect without being overstated, and his wigs, costumes, make up and shoes just added the final touches to his lovable character.  His ‘latching on’ to a member of the audience was perfect – it gave many laughs but without causing too much embarrassment to the gentleman involved.

So the story played on with many good performances and effects by the stage crew.  The final ‘keep the audience amused while we all get changed for the final walk-down’ was a fast moving, rib tickling parody of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ which involved audience participation in the line ‘Five toilet rolls’, this became more and more funny as the song went on and involved the rolls ending up in various parts of the auditorium and being thrown back onto the stage where they were caught very ably and cleverly, round the neck of Muddles, ably assisted by Fetch & Carrie (Darren Ryder & Amy Gration).

My only criticisms of the show were the fact that a number of characters carried on with their lines through the audience boos or laughter, making part of the story unintelligible and some, through seemingly shouting instead of projecting, their diction was impaired.  The lighting, when depicting the passage of time, was cruel; being very bright and directly into your eyes.  These points are very minor in comparison to the overall effect which was good, very enjoyable and the orchestra and sound was perfectly balanced.  Scenery was good and effective with the band, being on stage throughout and visible in the Castle scenes, was always at one with the characters.  Costumes, wigs and props were very good throughout.  A very enjoyable evening for cast and audience alike.

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