Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Sodbury Players have set the bar incredibly high with their award-winning pantomimes in recent years, and this year’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was certainly up there with the best of them, full of colour, magic, lively chorus numbers and some lovely effects.

As ever, the first thing that Sodbury Players impress with are their excellent sets and this year was no exception, with some subtle lighting effects and tableau introducing us to the young Snow White’s back story. This soon gave way to the first of many energetic dance numbers, nicely choreographed by Tina Stewart and her team, and ably supported by Callum Webb’s well-controlled and balanced band. The singing from all the principals and the full company was very strong, and clear, not least from relative newcomer Fran Hinton as Snow White, who kept the perfect pantomime princess persona throughout (especially when dancing with the very young Snow Whites who joined her onstage for the songsheet - definitely swept away in the magic of pantomime!) 

The strength in depth of this company always comes to the fore in the pantomime where larger casts are required, and again this production had been very well cast, from Tina Stewart’s nicely laconic, if slightly subversive Fairy Godmother battling Michaela Sydney’s eminently boo-able Wicked Queen; through all the comedy characters, especially newcomer Joe Moore’s flamboyantly Bruno Tonioli-esqe Magic Mirror, to the seven dwarfs, all with their particular personalities. For me the stand out performances came from Grant McCotter as the hilariously decrepit King Well-to-Do, Maggie Allsopp’s wonderfully stubborn Grumper, and Katie Salt’s effervescent Dop-eee, more like Tigger than the Disney character her dwarf was ‘loosely’ based on! Pete Williamson did a sterling job as Nurse Nettles, despite struggling with throat problem - he still gave it absolutely everything as a very traditional dame, with some fantastically outrageous costumes, which threatened to steal the show. In fact, all of the costumes were very well styled and presented, including the well-matched chorus outfits.

If there is one criticism, it is that this strength in depth, and having so many characters to include, meant that the story got lost on occasion, and at times the pace dragged. In particular during the dwarfs scenes, the repetition of their names and characters felt a little laboured, and while some characters felt a little superfluous to proceedings, other more integral characters (Prince Gallant, for example) didn’t register as much as they could have done. This is no reflection on the performances, which across the board were very impressive, but is an issue with trying to fit a non-traditional pantomime story such as Snow White (and others such as Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, etc.) into a pantomime structure, where everyone has their ‘moment’ - it felt as though there were too many characters and not enough story to share amongst them. 

There were also occasions where the script felt too reliant on puns, again at the expense of story and character. Unfortunately on the performance I attended, the audience were very quiet, and with the puns generating more (well-meaning) groans than guffaws, it felt as though the audience weren’t engaging as well as they might have done. I’m sure that this wouldn’t have been the case at every performance, and I would have been interested to attend an evening performance where a more raucous audience would have given the cast a little more to respond to and bounce off of, as I’m sure this would have generated an even more lively production.

Despite these quibbles, this was a very strong and enjoyable show, with incredibly high production values, and as ever, this company puts to shame many companies, both amateur and professional, who achieve far less with ten times Sodbury Players’ budget. The ‘full house’ notices going up a month or more before opening night, when the professional theatres in Bristol were struggling to fill many performances, shows the high regard and the importance to the local community that this group has, and on the evidence of this performance that trust is not only well-placed, but amply rewarded.

Congratulations to the cast and crew for another great pantomime, and best wishes for your future productions

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