Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Kinver Light Operatic Society bought Christmas well and truly into focus with unbounding fun and energy in Ricky Houston-Dowell’s vibrant, traditional production of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’.

The auditorium at Kinver High School Theatre was electric with excited anticipation, for several audience members around me, this was the eagerly awaited, family tradition that heralded the start of Christmas and right from the opening, their expectations were rewarded with an acerbic, yet delightfully tongue-in-cheek from Kate Cox as ‘Fairy Fortune’ sparring with Georgie Hand’s ‘Queen Avarice’ – making sure that the audience knew well and truly that good will inevitably conquer evil!

Queen Avarice’s character was also bought into sharp focus in dealing with her conversations with the sycophantic and ultimately rebellious ‘Merlin of the Mirror’, played by Ben Williams achieved with an ingeniously conceived stage effect. Although the scene-stealer was her utterly ingratiating and oily, ‘Slurp’, played with great relish by Paul Costello, who drew the immediate dislike of the younger audience members for taking Snow White into the forest to remove her from the picture for not fitting into the Queen’s despicable plans.

The parade of stock pantomime characters ensued, a spirited and lively performance by Scott Denton in full flight Dame mode as ‘Edna Bucket’ had the audience eating out of her hand complimented by Harvey Dalloway’s ‘Chuckles’, endearingly filling the Silly Billy role with just the right amount of awful jokes and pathos. Further comedic support came from Debbie Neale’s ‘Justice Quill’ and her sidekick and real-life son, Joe Neale’s ‘Scribbles’. In an otherwise very sharp and witty script, I did find the IT-reference sequences a little dated but even so, were expertly timed and delivered.

The hero of our tale in great pantomime tradition was Principal Boy, Becky Turner’s ‘Prince Ferdinand’. Becky was supremely confident in this role, giving a powerful performance, as any hero would be expected to do.

Is there somebody I’ve missed – oh! Yes, there is!  How could I forget the title characters – the talented Chloe Rampton as ‘Snow White’ was thoroughly charming throughout, taken to the hearts of everyone but it was the dwarfs who drew the aaahs of the adults and the envy of the children in the audience who would have loved to have been in their shoes. Poppy Bowles ‘Brainy’, Giovanna Cutts ‘Smiley’, Oscar Wilkinson ‘Grumbly’, Ava Danks ‘Sniffles’, George Danks ‘Snoozy’, Bonnie Wilson ‘Dozy’ and Lola Wilson ‘Blushful’ all performed with great confidence and as a team, each was given their moment to shine and each carrying it off magnificently and looking as if they were having a whale of a time to boot.  

A really enthusiastic and talented ensemble gave great support, all getting into the panto spirit. Equally spirited choreography by Tracey Thompson. Technically, panto gives everyone the opportunity to shine more than normal, some sympathetic and impressive lighting added to the production.  I did have one or two issues with the sound balance for a couple of numbers but this was outweighed by Nick Jeavons’ inspired musical direction giving us some exciting and foot-tapping production numbers delivered by a very talented and energised cast.  My thanks to everyone at KLOS for their hospitality and wonderfully warm welcome, looking forward to “Oliver” in May 2024.

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