Sleeping Beauty The Panto

Both writing and directing is no mean feat and this was successfully achieved by Beverley Beveridge, together with husband Graham as Musical Director leading a great little live band. Full of local jokes, wonderful double entendres, a talented principal cast, large ensemble, well rehearsed troupe of little fairies and goblins with perfectly formed big ears, supportive parents and unsung heroes backstage plus a sprinkle of panto corn, resulted in a fun experience. Rhythmic, lively and well balanced movement set by the choregraphers with an exhilarating Jitterbug routine. Wardrobe ladies created some excellent outfits including the royal household, numerous characters, colourful jesters, a nasty witch Cruella, an agile monkey and a stork. Scenery design and construction was excellent, in particular the Village Scene depicting cottages in Act 2. The Forest of Thorns frontdrop with the fairies adding branches of thorns worked very well. Notable performances, with ad-libbing and brilliant accents from both Mark Barron Reid as King and Grant Matthews as Nursie. Superbly attired Robert Brundell played Dr Aloysius Twicenightly giving a head-nodding Peter Sellers rendering of Goodness Gracious Me. Bonnie Sullivan created a mischievous Tinkerbell like Fairy Queen and young Tom Featherstone as Passing of Time must be congratulated on his gradual ageing and his heralding. Plenty of audience participation and booing the badies.

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