Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The buzz of community was in full force as I entered the Riverside Hall. Not a large space, but the audience certainly made up for that with their reactions - as with any good pantomime they were as important a part of the show as the players!

I was very impressed at the work the society put in to get this empty space of four walls into something resembling a theatre. Not only have they devised a very clever set mechanism to make the very best use of their limited space, they also build their raised stage along with masking and house curtain. An excellent example of improvising to make the best use of the space you have available.

The villains of the piece were the Wicked Queen, Cruella, and her henchman, Black Wing - appropriately named as he is turned into a crow in act two, much to the delight of the audience! I felt that Queen Cruella needed a little more majestical slyness about her to make her character truly evil. Instead she tended to dart about the stage a little too much like a hen-pecking spouse, which worked when playing against Black Wing but didn’t quite set the sinister tone her character deserved.

The queen’s magic mirror was a nice technical effect created with a mixture of gilt frames, gauzes, coloured lights and a large portrait. All this was the setting for the mirror's voice, provided off stage in deep and booming style! Would have liked to see a real actor appear instead of a still portrait, but still a nice effect.

Cheeky chappie Danny Dumpling was energetic and worked well alongside the Dame, Dolly Dumpling, to energise the performance and get vital interaction with the audience going. Meanwhile, the bumbling characters of Stinkwart and Bogwart made a good pair of stooges, with the latter giving an excellent performance against his more stoic counterpart.

Appearances by teddybears and puppies melted the coldest hearts, while the junior dwarves were a little disjointed, with a couple of exceptions - Grouchy was a good little performer and stood out from the others with nicely delivered grumpiness.

Wardrobe was generally of a high standard, with a great costuming effect being the forest of trees that suddenly span round and became skeletons, eerily lit up by ultraviolet making for a great effect!

The thing that would have made the show stronger would have been more confident, extreme characters, both from the general company and some of the lead principles. Extra indulgence and time spent in the development of characters like this can make an ordinarily appreciative audience go crazy!

After all this is pantomime - the sky’s the limit!!

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