Sleeping Beauty The Panto

BATS panto at Stratton School Biggleswade is now long established and always great fun packed with all the expected traditional ingredients and on a cold night in December just what the doctor ordered to bring in the Christmas cheer. To reiterate the point Kay Young states this is the 15th (She thinks) panto she has directed for BATS. Quite a record!

The set by Maxine Connolly consisted of various scenes from a magnificent hired back cloth for the great hall of the castle, which looked suitably imposing complete with stain glass windows, a forest clearing, the suitably decked out castle kitchen for the slapstick scene and a rather clever tower which was simply one flight of stairs up which the cast climbed several times by tearing off the notice saying which flight they had reached, Clever and rather funny. The rest of the scenes were mostly done in front of the curtains as per tradition. Good job and well thought out.

Lighting and Sound by Dave & Kate Maltby after a couple of minor glitches with sound (who doesn’t have them on an opening night) was pretty much crystal clear. Lighting was cued spot on and the stage washes brightened up the stage perfectly.

Costumes, especially for the Dame, who had a different outfit for every scene, were very well sourced by Gareth Griffiths-Powell and Kay Young from Harlequin in Ramsey. Particularly loved the outfit for our baddy Malicia especially the magnificent set of Devil’s horns. Makeup by Kerry Hewish was of course wonderfully over the top for the Dame

Choreography by Sara Bailey supported by Kerry Hewish and Kay Young, took a little while to get going, mainly because there was only one real chorus number in the first act (Colour my World), and of course the chorus were mainly ‘asleep’ for a good part of the story, but gradually it built to some great ensemble numbers.

Hannah Ridley as our Beauty, Princess Rose was taking her first principal girl role in a BATS panto and if this performance is anything to go by it certainly won’t be her last.  Sarah Bailey in her first BATS panto, besides taking on the Choreography also played our dashing hero Prince Rhod very convincingly. Clearly a very welcome new and valuable asset to the society.

Our Dame, Nurse Nelly Nutmeg played by Gareth Griffiths-Powell soon had a great rapport going with the audience together with his bumbling sidekick Jerry The Jester, played by Matthew Evans in a rather amusing downtrodden manner. Great pair.

The female star of this show was arguably Sarah Ridley as our baddy the wicked Malicia. Not only is she obviously a very competent actress with some great delivery, an excellent singing voice; she also has superb comic timing. Whilst understanding the joy of playing a baddie my wife in particular would be keen to see Sarah in other prominent roles – so confident is she in Sarah’s ability and versatility!  Countering her was the excellent Natasha Leftwich as our good fairy, Forget-me-not, who being 600 years old could no longer remember to do things (I know how she feels)!

And to get political for a moment the man who stole this show, hook line and sinker was Ollie Elkin with a masterly performance as King Boris, complete with all the mannerisms, dishevelled looks and voice of certain ex-prime minister. His adlibs were brilliantly quick witted with such lines as, ‘We have just come from the vanilla alternative,’ had the audience rolling in the aisles. His performance will live long in the memory.

Princess Rose’s parents King Rowan and Queen Iris were played by two of BATs stalwarts Russell Jones and Deborah Taylor.

And then we come to our lovely quartet of Fairies, Fairy Marigold - Caitlin Evans, Fairy Tulip – Jessie Fox, Fairy Daisy – Katie Connolly and Fairy Bluebell very confidently played 10 year old Lucy who all added a lot of sparkle to the show.

And finally, a lovely cameo role by veteran Kelvin West as the Old Guard, giving ‘sword fighting’ lessons or should I say staying out of the way while Kelvin has anything remotely dangerous in his hand, especially as his visor wouldn’t stay open most of the time. Absolutely hilarious!

The audience throughout this show were fully engaged and totally entertained and of course fully appreciative of the magnificent snowball fight with white polystyrene balls as the audience participation. The two snow making machines that were let loose on the audience from either side of the auditorium were also superbly done at the end and the two front rows were absolutely blitzed  in snow. Brilliant ending.

So well done Director Kay Young and all involved in this years show, a thoroughly entertaining evening all round to get us all into the Christmas spirit.

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