Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is quite an involved pantomime to do, so I went along to Harper`s to see The Drama Dept`s production of it with certain expectations.

The stage was dressed by Red Floral Architecture with a huge forest of foliage attached across the top front of the proscenium. There was more foliage garland style around a free standing door and there were realistic looking trees placed at the stage end of wing entrances. Lighting from MSL Group and controlled by Keegan Jones-McCaw gave the stage some depth and atmosphere with uplighters throwing green, blue, pink and orange. The lighting plot throughout was sympathetic to the scene being played. The sound from Tube UK LTD and controlled by Tracy Harper was solid with no gremlins or drops. The costumes were a mix of Charades Theatrical Costume hire and Janet Newcombe and Annabel Reyes – they were of a high standard and very fitting to the characters being portrayed. Choreography was a joint effort from Tracy Harper and Olivia Clarke, the steps were executed with enthusiasm and energy from the whole cast.

Gary Jones as Nurse Nelly knows exactly how to tickle an audiences fancy and he had this  audience eating out of his hand from his very first entrance. The chemistry onstage between Gary and Michael McCaw (Muddles) was fantastic. Poor Michael offstage was severely suffering with a flu type illness but on that stage the only clue was his disappearing voice, he pushed out a fabulous, full bodied, physical performance as the pantomime clown character. Scarlett Walsh gave us a modern version of a fairy, personally I would have liked to see a little more light and shade in her characterisation, but she led the audience through the story well. Steph Mead as Queen Morgana was definitely a force to be reckoned with, her downtrodden sidekick Ramsbottom (Maxwell Harrison) also deserves a special mention – his comedy timing, facial expressions and pauses were fantastic. Lucy Fullman as the Magic Mirror was a very larger than life character, she commanded the stage well. Toby Fullman`s portrayal of Prince Rupert had me laughing out loud, he played it just far enough to stay funny, it was reminiscent of the slow run in Baywatch (showing my age there). He had some nice moments on stage with Snow White (Eva-Grace Llewellyn). The dwarfs had the hardest job with having to stay on their knees the whole time, they worked very well as a team and were very cohesive in their dialogue delivery.

The chorus worked hard during all their musical numbers and showed some good facial expressions during the character dialogue scenes that they were present for.

Myself and my guest enjoyed your performance of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

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