Snoring Beauty

Snoring Beauty, this pantomimes title was intriguing. A play on words of the traditional Sleeping Beauty we all know and love.  Allowing the story to travel a slightly different path with the introduction of new characters such as a porcupine called prickly played by Joel Dawson. The King and Queen are celebrating the birth of their daughter Aurora, until interrupted by Maleficent the bad fairy, who is not happy about not being invited and sadly puts a spell on the child. Fortunately, the three fairies are there to reduce the power of the original spell and leave us with the anticipation that all will be ok in the end.

It is always a great pleasure to see so much young talent on the stage being able to express themselves through character, voice, and movement. I have had the pleasure to watch many Dames over the years, and Drew Boswell as Dame Charming was no exception, being a dame is not an easy role for a young person to play as it has its own traditions that must be respected. So well done Drew!

Princess Aurora was played well by Izzy Cole and Sky Stacey played a great Prince Charming.

Next, I must mention Flora, Forna, and Merriweather the three fairies in our story, I enjoyed each performance individually and as a trio they added that panto sparkle to the performance. So, congratulations Katie Chamberlin as Flora, Eleanor Cooper, as Forna, and Lauren Hazledine as Merriweather. To oppose the three fairies, we had the wicked pair of Maleficent played by Bethan Moore and Mini Maleficent portrayed by Yasmin Aldous. These two young actors made the characters their own and it was clear that they are already so talented delivering some fantastic musical numbers that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Two more good performances by the King (Oliver Nolan) and Queen (Jessie Gatehouse). This society has so much talent that it would be easy to go on, well done to all involved.

Many congratulations to the production team, Written and Directed by Richard Dawson, Musical Director Gabryl Oleshko and Choreographer Abbi Burns. Well done to all the team involved, backstage, lighting, sound, costumes and front of house, so many wonderful volunteers giving up their time to produce a pantomime for all ages to enjoy.   

My only small criticism of the performance was that the curtain came down at 10.17pm. With younger people in the audience, I would always encourage companies to aim for a final curtain by 10pm. However, do not let this detract from what was a very enjoyable evening from a very talented cast and crew. I very much look forward to seeing your next production of Annie Get Your Gun in July

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.