Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Directed superbly by Paul Attwell and with magnificent musical direction and choreography by Amy Parker, this was a wonderful community production, and there was something special about the feel in the hall as soon as I sat down. Everyone had clearly worked very hard in bringing it all together and the performance on the night was bursting with exuberance, vitality and humour. From the lively opening number with lots of the cast on stage to the rousing, final number of Sweet Caroline, the acting, singing, dancing, music, set and technical effects all worked in harmony to tell the story and deliver great family entertainment. I was particularly impressed with the quality of voice projection, given that there was no use of head microphones. The younger members of the cast, as Team Fairies and Team spirit, stayed focussed on the action throughout and were a delight, really adding to the production with their well-executed songs and dances.

There was plenty of traditional pantomime jokes and knockabout humour, including the bear in the woods scene, and the audience clearly loved it. Congratulations to the backstage crew for keeping it all flowing, and there were some very impressive technical effects including the magic mirror, a smoke machine and swivelling spot lights, plus a well-managed device of a long table screening the lower halves of the Dwarves as they were wheeled into place. Congratulations, too, to the Production Manager, William Geeson. The pianist was excellent, all the more impressive for having stepped in only two weeks before the production to replace the original pianist who had been unable to play.

The cast were all very entertaining from the get-go of the Fairy Fortune’s introduction. The Dwarves played their parts very well and it was a while, due to his skilful acting, before I realised that one of them was also playing the evil Queen Avarice’s henchman. Queen Avarice herself was suitably nasty and had great stage presence and force, eliciting the customary boos from the audience. She sang a great rap song and improvised superbly, with great presence of mind, to cover a technical difficulty with the magic mirror when it didn’t, for a while, project its pre-recorded video of Merlin, the Wizard of the Mirror (who was very good when she did appear).

Justice Quill was delightfully urbane, with his slightly pompous air of superiority towards his sidekick Scribbles, who made a great foil for him. They made a good double-act, delivering very effectively a running gag of the Justice encouraging Scribbles to use digital technology, and Scribbles just not catching on. The Prince and Snow White were very good in both acting and singing, and both individually and together. I particularly enjoyed the songs they sang together, with some lovely harmonies and interesting melody and arrangement.

Chuckles, the Queen’s jester, was absolutely superb and at the core of the production; a real live-wire with bags of energy, great projection, wonderful repartee and clever improvisation. He sang well and delivered some great dance moves – and on top of that played guitar. Edina Bucket, the Palace Housekeeper and the ‘Dame’ character, was very well played and made an excellent foil and contrast with Chuckles – very dry and slightly bewildered.

Congratulations to everyone involved for a thoroughly enjoyable production and evening.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.