Snow White and the Seven Dwalfs

After a really successful Alice in Wonderland Pantomime last year, Darlington Academy of Performing Arts returned to a more traditional Panto script this year. Snow White was a great choice for this huge cast to get the 2026 Season off with a blast!

The self-written script by Directors Joanne and Paul Mason had all the excellent elements that make up a good panto… Ghost Gags, Huge ensemble numbers, lovely audience interaction and more bad jokes than a family size box of Christmas Crackers.

It was lovely to see the Adult and Junior members of the Academy all come together with the Adults taking on the lead roles and the main ensemble with the Juniors providing the excellent dancework and also the essential element - the brilliant Seven Dwarves.

With the Adults providing the majority of the key roles it was brilliant to see the Junior members get more involved with backstage roles. From front of house, backstage and the overall control of lighting and effects, with the exception of the Stage Manager they looked after everything. The show started really reliant on these effects with Camryn Mason as the mirror jumping from screen to screen as the Magic Mirror. Camryn worked well in this role also jumping from behind the screen to interact with the cast in some big numbers. Her costumes were outstanding, really fitting the part and she mixed in well with the dance troupe in her numbers.

The Show opened with a real bang from our younger members celebrating Snow White’s birthday and Miracle from Matilda was a great choice. These young performers had great conviction in their lines delivering them with a real punch. 

The Junior members really delivered throughout the whole show with my show featuring Teams Diamond, Amethyst and Ruby, the Juniors were split into a number of groups across the performances. Every age group of the Junior cast on the Friday night were brilliant, delivering so much energy, passion and quality to the show. 

The older Juniors who acted as the dance troupe were brilliant. Really involved throughout the whole show, often giving as routines to cover scene changes, the dances were wonderfully choreographed with all of them working in sync. Laura Pattison led the Dance Team choreography and it was really clever, matched with excellent costumes and gave the platform for these talented younger members to shine. 

The young members of the cast on top of the opening number were busy throughout the whole show and it was lovely to see them all really enjoying the experience and I can definitely see some future stars in the ranks. 

The Seven Dwarfs were brilliantly cast and all 7 totally owned their characters. From our snotty Lurgy right through to the angelic Cutie they really stole their scenes. Their main number was very clever with a play on the hit number from Six.. the lyrics altered to match the seven of them well written. These 7 talented youngsters were really impressive and brought great laughs and visual comedy in the traditional military line-up sketch. Isla Mason was brilliant as Bossy commanding the stage and bossing her troops around with real menace. Huge well done to all 7 who alongside Isla included: Daisie Jenkinson, Chloe Gowling, Elliot Shepherd, Harriet Robson, Luna Lloyd and Aurora McCrystal-Coles.

In our title role Kathryn Gibson was the perfect Disney Princess, elegant in her posture and delivery whilst maintaining a cheeky side to her. Her vocals in Go The Distance were really well controlled, showing a fine voice in a male written song. Kathryn connected really well with her Prince played by Joanne Mason and their duet of Love Is an Open Door backed up by the ensemble was a lovely number in the show. Joanne, I am sorry to say this, but you really owned this role as the Prince. Your stances, posture and arrogance were almost as manly as your stubble. You played the straight role really well with complete chaos all around you.

Trying to put a stop to Snow White at all times was our Evil Queen Obsidia played by Laura Pattison. Laura really owned the role with a piercing cackle and some menacing exits. Her costumes were a credit to the wardrobe team and it was lovely to see her deliver a confident delivery of her solo number, You Should See Me in a Crown.

Proving the chaos in the production was Paul Mason in the role of Joker and he lived up to his name from delivering magic tricks to an endless supply of bad jokes. Paul gave great energy throughout the number interacting well with the rest of the cast and it was excellent that even his awful one-liner pick-ups couldn’t scare off his true love Molly who was played by the beaming Rebecca Richmond. Rebecca had possibly the best stage presence of the minor principles, her lines and diction really clear and she brought real warmth to every scene.

Now there was not one, not two, not even 6/7 (you had to be there) love interests in this story but we also had Mr Bobbins in constant pursuit of our Duchess in the show. Julian Pinkney really conveyed a high level of excitement and almost desperation in trying to win over our Dame. 

Ben Moseby in the role of Duchess really brought the laughter, wit and cheek to the production. The physical comedy was almost as outrageous as the pouting, the costumes as extravagant as the cheeky audience interaction. Ben seems to have this great comic timing about him that really delivers. His solo numbers were an absolute hoot and the song and routine in Telephone was the standout number in the show. Ben and the cast were so shattered that I’d have loved an encore to see if they could have survived.

I always have to be completely honest in a show report and if there was one area that I would look at for next year is the pace in certain scenes. We were not the loudest audience and not always receptive to every joke so waiting for the laughs sometimes slowed the scenes down. 

Despite this the show was a lovely example of a fabulous community Pantomime. Seeing all ages come together and having an absolute blast is what these shows are all about. The massive routines were brilliant, really lifting the show and it is clear just how much hard work has gone into rehearsing these routines and scenes. The finale was a brilliant rousing rendition of Spread the Love Around, a great choice giving all of the cast a chance to shine and the audience to really show their appreciation of the performances.

A huge thank you to Joanne, Paul and the whole production team for putting on a lovely Pantomime to start the year off with a bang. I can’t wait to see what DAPA has in store for the rest of the year ahead

 

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