Sleeping Beauty

Once again Portishead Players have achieved originality with their latest musical production ‘Sleeping Beauty’. With the script written by a local author, the production team managed to encompass all the pantomime elements in a fresh, slick and entertaining way.   Before the show one of your directors commented to me ‘it was the first pantomime script we read that made us laugh out loud’ and I certainly understood why!  Of the 9 or 10 top pantomimes regularly performed, the scripts are usually predictable even when written by different authors, but John Evans script, with local colour added by the team, was anything but predictable.

The production team had skilfully and successfully combined talented children and adults into the principal roles and chorus thus adding immense interest and fun... this would not have worked so well if the children had not been outstandingly good.

The simple set consisted of good props and a couple of periaktoi (periactoids... triangular rotating scenery) with location scenes projected onto the backcloth. This simplicity, probably for cost reasons, worked well and I wonder that more societies don’t take this risk! Of course this only works well if the cast, together with the colourful costumes and good lighting excel in their interpretation of the story... which Portishead did.

The costumes were delightful, Queen Mother in Law Rich Macpherson almost had a costume change for every appearance on stage and he wore the dresses so well.  The whole cast were exceptionally well costumed from start to finale and the ‘in house’ wardrobe team are to be congratulated. 

Miles Boyd and his small orchestra once again gave the audience a treat with well performed music, never obtrusive and always sympathetic to the performers. One of the keyboards managed some excellent ‘out of this world’ sounds for the mystic element of this fairy tale.  The added songs complimented the story well (so often these days pantomimes have inappropriate ‘pop’ songs which are difficult to sing, added just to ‘bring a panto up to date’...which rarely works!) The cleverly changed lyrics of many of the songs added local colour, complimented the story and were great fun.

The dancing and movement ingeniously added interest to the pantomime and was sympathetic to the story and performers, well done Caroline Astley and Karley Hughes.

Directors Kim Cheasley & Pam Pummell ensured the pace of the show never faltered by keeping everything short and snappy, songs were never too long, comedy elements were slick and funny, scene changes quick and the whole show was simply enjoyable fun!  Cast characters were easily identifiable and putting the audience sing-along and children on stage early in the show was quite inspired and ensured early involvement of the audience, very well done. Regularly this element of pantomime is an ‘add on’ at the end of the show to allow the cast time to put on ‘walk down’ costumes. It frequently drags and coming at the end of a long show makes a young audience restless.

There were so many excellent performances that my report will turn into a list so I will also try to keep this part ‘short and snappy’

Queen Mother in Law was funny, entertaining, connected brilliantly with the audience. Lord Chamberpot... Oops sorry... Chamberlain’s performance was very enjoyable and he demonstrated an excellent singing voice in Nowhere Man. Young King and Queen gave excellent performances, their comic timing was so good and both were a pleasure to watch. Maitre Pierre maintained his French accent and antics brilliantly throughout and made me laugh out loud! Glad and Eth were an inspired addition... nowhere have I seen a pair of ‘old Welsh housewives’ being ‘stars of the show’ really upstaging the rest of the panto for the older patrons in the audience, very well done to you both.

Princess Sleeping Beauty and her lovely smiling Prince were delightful and their performances much enjoyed by the audience. The Misfits...Lady’s Plonker, Clumsy and Slapdash were pure fun and so talented, they really commanded the stage with their silly larking about. Malvolia the evil Queen was awesome, her performance was powerful yet controlled with excellent timing and her costume and makeup were outstanding.

I’m sorry I cannot mention everyone, but with no weak links in this talented company, this was truly a family pantomime and a genuine company show. With a busy Christmas Victorian evening out in the streets of Portishead on Friday, this pantomime was very well received and enjoyed by the smaller but enthusiastic audience and me! Well done Portishead Players.

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