Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Didn’t we all have a joyous and fun night out watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs performed at the Stage Door Theatre. This traditional story has had a modern make over by writer Ben Crocker meaning that it has a fresh approach for a modern day audience, without taking away the traditions associated with pantomime.

Lets start by talking about how well this show had been cast. Everyone had their moment to shine in the spotlight, everyone had the opportunity to show their talent and everyone worked well together.

Fairy Goodheart, Fairy Sweetheart and Wonder wings (Hannah Sonders, Harriet Rainbow and Isla Coburn) worked well together and provided the sparkle and magic to start us on our journey of celebrating Snow Whites 18 birthday.

The wicked Queen Grimelza (Sophie Meredith) revelled in the ‘boos and hisses’ provided by the audience and it was great to hear her witty adlibs and see her gestures as she kept the audience completely under her control. Blackwing (Elliot Long) provided a good accompaniment as her evil sidekick and great amusement when transformed into a crow.

The Queen of course needs her magic mirror played by Annabel Heath in order to establish who is the fairest of them all, along with the inept Bogwort and Stinkwort (Georgia Beckett, Grace Newcombe) who are ordered by the wicked queen to take Snow White into the wild woods in order to murder her and bring back her heart.

Dolly Dumpling (Ben Heath) and son Danny Dumpling (Ben Sonders) were fun to watch and had developed their characters well.  Fang, the dog (Daisy Coxill) and an array of teddy bears, rabbits and villagers all came together for an entertaining evening.

Snow White (Robyn Howard) was simply delightful and her singing of ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ was lovely to listen too. The handsome Prince Fredrick (George Cuss) was great to watch and it was lovely to see his personal interpretation of the character.

Then of course we have the seven dwarfs all with a range of personalities who confess to Snow White that they are really tall people disguised. I particularly loved the use of the musical interlude of ‘Walk Tall by Don Wayne’ when their secret was revealed.

From a technical point of view the music for this production had been well chosen and of great variety, the lighting was well designed and the set was creative and full of detail. I thought the adlib by the Queen to ask the audience if they had heard any of the noise from behind the curtain during some quick scene changes was very clever and of course in true panto style we all replied ‘No’.  Finally the costumes and wigs for this show were of great quality, vibrant and plentiful.

There were a number of highlights in this production including a long and energetic chase sequence to ‘Yakety Sax’ which made me laugh out loud, the fight sequence between the Prince and Queen which had been well choreographed, the two hearts presented to the queen as Snow Whites (but secretly purchased at the co-op because they were on a buy one get one free), the woodland creatures as they ate their carrots, the teddy bears picnic that closed act one and time travel by the Prince in Dr Who’s Tardis!

Well done to the production team of Sue Simcock, John Roberts and Jon Edge, this pantomime was packed full of content, had been directed well and was a joy to watch but most of all made its audience feel included in the story.

It was lovely to see how members of this cast had developed from last years pantomime and I very much look forward to seeing what they will perform in 2024.

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