Sleeping Beauty

I was (and have been a few times before) delighted to deputise for the lovely Julie Petrucci again this Panto season. Her heavy schedule normally allows me this honour but as I took my seat in the wonderful Hockwold Community Centre with a very passable red wine to hand and still radiating a warm glow from the welcome these guys hand out … I noticed another good reason why JP was absent. This ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was one of hers!

She hadn’t mentioned (and why should she) that the fine burgers at H.A.T.S. had selected a Petrucci and Shinn for their festive offering. Even more bizarrely, I had already seen this script performed in Wisbech and enjoyed it enormously. The Hockwold Community Centre looked lovely, the H.A.T.S. portable staging was freshly painted and the auditorium was almost full of enthusiastic audience members of all ages. The atmosphere here is always electric and this year it seemed even more buzzing than usual. Notable by his absence was H.A.T.S. driving force, Gary Sander, but the updates I received on his health led me to believe that rumours of his death had been at least partially exaggerated! With the main man down, Directorial duties had fallen to Sue Sander and I was sure you could trust the name.

The set (uncredited) was spot on as usual with complimentary lighting (Richard Brighton) and sound (Wayne Askew) doing all that they needed to .., and more. Costumes (Carol Haigh, Joan Ellison, Betty Golding, Kath Brown and Janet Strickland we perfection with some pretty sharp dresses for the dame. Hair (Nicki Holder) and Make Up (Abi Weetman and Brenda Willison) both added greatly to the overall look of this production.

The Chorus were enthusiastic and well-disciplined, helped greatly by perfectly suitable choreography from Viv Morris. In the supporting roles, I enjoyed Harley Bool and Lewis Sismey as the guards Graham and Gordon, Sofie Bradshaw as Victoria and Ben Sullivan as Feathers. Marjorie Bradley and Andrew Gookey were also in fine form as Queen Beryl and King Basil with a great team effort from the fairies, Amethyst (Eleanor Vaughan), Bluebell (Courtney Peckham), Daffodil (Kira Daughenbaugh), Primrose (Hannah Sullivan), Lilac ( Francesca Derbyshire) and Rosebud (Joanne Sullivan), who all put in a really good shift. No weak links, although as Fairy Amethyst, Miss Vaughan was particularly watchable.

In the more prominent roles, there were solid performances from Max Blake as Prince Valiant and Molly Martin as Princess Aurora, who made a particularly good looking couple. I believe I have seen Megan Askew here before and left this year thinking what a lot of potential she had. As the Jester / Secret Agent she had plenty of dialogue and quite a few jokes, all of which she delivered with some style. The same can be said of Mary Sullivan, who was a steady hand at the helm as the Story Teller, keeping things moving along nicely and making sure the audience didn’t lose the plot, she delivered her many lines without hesitation, deviation or perspiration! Choreographer Viv Morris was very much in the thick of the performing end of this pantomime as she did a great job with the part of the very unpleasant, Zelda Blackadder. The air was thick with saliva from the boo and hiss every time she entered or exited and she worked the audience well with the help of a spectacularly gothic costume that really underpinned her characterisation.

Although it may have been before my time, I was told afterwards that Sue Perry has been in many productions over here at Hockwold, this time out she was the misguided sidekick of the baddie, Spaldrick, and what a magnificent job she did. A beautifully crafted characterisation that gave her plenty of scope to maximise the comic possibilities thrown her way.

Penultimate paragraph honours were never in doubt this night as Jill Enefer as Dame Dotty Dooright simply stole the show. Her comic timing was priceless and the way she flirted with some poor bewildered chap in the audience was worth the ticket price alone. Her superb outfits helped a little but it was the sheer professionalism of her performance that had Miss Enefer standing out from the crowd. I left with the distinct impression that she could be doing this for a living.

Congratulations to Director, Sue Sander, for delivering another quality production even when some of the Society’s leading performers were AWOL.  Mrs Sander was not only without Mr Sander but the two very talented Sandettes that make up the family Sander were also out of action, that is unless you include bar duty. The importance of which (in my opinion) should not be overlooked. This group are so well received by the local people and the large team of performers, technicians, back stagers and front of house stewards are all so incredibly pleasant it is never anything less than a complete delight to spend time with them. Merry Christmas Hockwold. You have put me very much in the mood!

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