Snow White is Feeling Grumpy

I was very much looking forward to this one. My first ever review of an ‘Adult’ pantomime, or as they put it ‘a panto for grown-ups,’ and another home written script by their leading light, Keith Badham. The great thing about Barton Players, you never quite know what to expect especially when Keith Badham is given full reign and listed in the programme as Writer, Director, Box Office and Stage Manager. We and the full house were not to be disappointed.

The plot itself was as it turned out fairly traditional, Snow White taken into the woods by the Huntsman on the orders of the wicked Queen, but of course he failed to carry out the Queen’s orders and chop her head off and she ends up living with the seven dwarfs. There were quite a lot of profanities and well-timed innuendos that produced huge laughs, but in all honestly it didn’t really get as smutty as I was expecting. Not that it was suitable for minors, but Keith Badham’s writing was much more subtle than that. The clever bit was there was one actor, John Murphy who played all seven dwarfs, wonderfully renamed Rumpy, Pumpy, Stumpy, Dumpy, Lumpy, Bumpy and Bernard by rushing on and off stage and changing his waistcoat and headgear and returning as a different dwarf with a different accent. Breathless stuff and highly amusing to watch!

The set by Keith Bowie was twofold, the Queen’s castle and the forest with the Dwarf’s home, a backcloth for the woods and a cleverly decorated reservable flat to the rear with a cut away opening on one side for the magic mirror and the same on the other side for the entrance to the dwarf’s home, all superbly conceived & painted by Kirsty Badham, Julie Blake and Milly Badham  Neat bit of set building especially as you couldn’t see the openings until they were actually used.  Lighting was also by Keith Bowie and sound by Rachael Bowie. I didn’t think about either at the time, which always means they went without a hitch. Excellent job!

The colourful array of panto Costumes were put together by Derryanne Blunt ranging from blue tabards for the guards, a fabulous sparkling silver outfit for the King. Some outlandish costumes for the Dame and some sparkly tops and tights for our Fairy Godmother, as the role was played by a man. All making a great collage of costumes and colours on the stage.

We had a new face on the block this year in the form of Mick Platt as the Fairy Godmother acting as our compere/narrator and who fitted into the quirky style of the Barton Players fold like a glove. Very camp as per tradition, quick with the adlib, great interaction with the audience and a wonderful smirk on his face, al la Julian Clary.

Our title role was expertly played by Rebecca-Louise Smith, who’s been brought up on Barton Players and I first saw in 2019 as part of Barton’s excellent youth Summer School, run annually in conjunction with Keith Badham’s ‘Up-stage”. Having matured into an essential part of the Players, here she had also taken on the role of Choreographer alongside Rachael Bowie, with some well drilled and fun routines. That’s the strength of Barton Players, their youth group cleverly feeding their adult cast.

Clare Coffey had a ball in the best role in any panto, the evil baddy, in this case the Queen. We booed her every move. Christine Ayres, who was surprised by the Fairy Godmother unexpectedly singing Happy Birthday to her played the ‘Mirror of Truth’ and ‘Eric Shun,’ one of the two henchmen. The other being Phoebe Moorhouse played ‘Drew Peacock.’ -  Yes well, with those two names…? Er - moving swiftly on! Gill George was our thigh slapping Prince Charming. Mick George was the very put upon Huntsman, carrying an enormous chopper. A very amusing performance. The King played by Carl Welch was very much the put upon husband as the Queen plotted his death, so she could marry a younger suitor and talked about him as if he was already dead to his vein protests of ‘But I’m still here,’ Highly amusing!  Dame Camille Toe was played by Kevin Fitzgerald, fresh from his stage debut in Blithe Spirit in his first panto role. Nice job!

Alex McDonald with another brilliant name of Noah Fence and Hilda Tavolara played Norman as well as being in the Chorus. Other Chorus members were played by Linda Forster, Helen Howden Adam Bowie and Keith Badham, And our two guards were Sharon Maltby and Tallulah Smith.

And somehow towards the end the local Noda representative ended up on stage dancing with Rumpy wearing a green Tutu! Hmm? No change there then!

I told Keith Badham afterwards that can’t say I totally followed the plot, “Plot? What plot?” he replied as usual. Looking at the programme I note his Director’s Corner slot is a wonderful spoof piece supposed submitted to the editor giving a summary of the production which starts of with ‘When I first sat down to direct ….” which at the end is then attributed to a piece by Sir Trevor Nunn from 1977, with a final note from Keith saying ‘That should do, Edit as appropriate – Keith.’ If that doesn’t sum up the wonderful quirkiness of Keith Badham and Barton Players, then nothing ever will!

Thank you Barton Players for wonderful evening’s entertainment, your kind hospitality and the lovely goody bag of Christmas Crackers, scrumptious sweets and six programmes! Always a pleasure to visit, even if we do come away more confused than when we arrived!

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