Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This was my first visit to Hereford Amateur Pantomime Society (HAPS) and their first pantomime since February 2020. Little did they know when Aladdin closed in February 2020 what was just around the corner for all of us!

However, after this rather enforced break of three years I was delighted to have witnessed HAPS’ production of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. Judging by the audience reaction I was not on my own. HAPS perform pantomime later in the season than many groups; indeed, Christmas and most pantos seemed some time back, but this production came as the ideal half term treat for many.

If in doubt what the performance was going to be, the front cloth gave the game away – yes ‘Snow White’ which I believe was performed for the first time in HAPS 40-year history – with Louise Hickey once again in the hot seat as director.

The show opened with The Wizard Astero, played with great panto rhyme by William Shaw. Having to speak in rhyme allows no room for deviation from the script, so well done on this as the necessary was well mastered. Also, congratulations to the set designers for the effective use of lighting while William was trapped in the mirror (spoiler here as he did manage to escape).

In pantomime every director needs a good baddie, this they achieved. I was pleased to see the director continued to use stage left for the appearance of the baddie namely Nicola Twigg as Queen Morgana.

The baddie needs to be a character the audience can really boo at. Nicola gave us a superb performance whereby she was never too evil to frighten the younger members of the audience but got it just right to gain the reaction she received. Added to this quality acting (I trust it was acting!) was a superb rendition of ‘One Way or Another’. More about Nicola later (suffice to say maybe one should say ‘never work with children, animals, and pieces of fruit).

Louisa Tobin as Snow White was lovely in her performance as the character demands. It would be all too easy to imitate a certain cartoon interpretation – this was not done by Louisa although one running gag involving a dwarf did remind me of the well-loved cartoon.

Buckles (the buttons type character) played by Lydia Denton was of course forever trying to pluck up the courage to tell Snow White of their love. Lydia gave a confident performance while seeking the support and reassurance of the audience and really had them on her side.

Sadly for Buckles, Prince Rupert was in town played by Samantha Naylor who was a great principal boy with typical panto stance and good stage presence.

Natasha Clark as Lord Pierre De Pommefrit was a brilliant character who must have watched numerous episodes of 'Allo 'Allo to have such a ‘perfect’ French accent. With great make up Natasha truly brought out a great characterisation.

Unlike William as Wizard who kept to script, we come to Stephen Raven as Dame Honoria Halibut – a great dame who I am sure said all the rights words but ‘not necessarily in the right order’ as was famously once said. Well done Stephen on a fabulous dame (and well done to all on stage at the same time when the script variations may have taken place).

Tracy Crum and Heather Marshall as the comedy duo who fortunately disobeyed the order to kill Snow White worked well together and it was noticeable both enjoyed their roles.

The ensemble danced and sang well and smiled most of the time. I did enjoy ‘Never Ending Story’ for a start.  I did however notice you never saw many of the ensemble on stage at the same time as the dwarfs – wonder why? Congratulation to the dwarfs Grace, Molly, Phoebe, Charlotte, Emily, Megan and Tilly and to Madeleine as Toby.  Finally but not least congratulations to Yasin (who was the only boy in the show) for playing the part of the shrunken dame in the steam and sauna scene.

All lived happily ever after and, before the wedding scene, as with many pantomimes, we had the audience participation piece. It was not easy ‘to stand up, turn around and sit down’ but cheating was allowed (well I did!). I was delighted to be the first call out by the dame who then went on to name almost the whole audience it seemed!

There was good use of lighting and sound throughout the production. Costumes were good with great walkdown outfits all adding to the quality of the performance.

Earlier on I referred to working with fruit – the scene whereby the Queen poisoned the apple was well played and a great piece of theatre. However, the apple (much to Nicola’s surprise) failed to place itself in her hand before coming on stage to then be handed to Snow White! Like a true professional Nicola exited stage left rather swiftly (I can image the panic in the wings) only to appear moments later with the aforementioned apple. Luckily for the plot, Snow White remained ready to take the infamous bite and did not retire to the safety of the cottage!!

Yes, this was my first outing to HAPS but I hope not my last. Well done to all involved and thank you for a pleasant afternoon in the middle of February and I hope you raised loads for your chosen charity and to see you all again next year.

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