Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs

This is one of my favourite times of the year as I love Panto and am lucky enough as a NODA Representative to see quite a few.  All pantomimes have a fascinating story to tell and Polegate gave good value in the telling of Snow White giving audiences a really fun evening out.

The principal characters were all well cast with Heather Tingley as a charming Snow White with voice to match, making a good pairing with Helen Griffin as Prince Simon of Sofaria, a true principal boy, singing and acting so well with Snow White.  Kirsten Grinstead started everything off by giving us a lovely Fairy Goodapple – we knew there was going to be a really happy ending with things in her magical hands!

Pantomime would be nothing without a Dame and Chris Thompson excelled as Dame Delores Dingbat – a really energetic performance.   His costumes were something to behold!  Laura Catchpole played Herbert Vore the Huntsman – another great character and again with so much energy.

Then we come to the dark side and Sue Talmadge gave a really sinister performance as Evil Queen Narcissa, looking wonderful while plotting her dreadful schemes to kill poor Snow White.  Of course she had to look into The Magic Mirror to confirm that she was the loveliest of them all with Cris Haniver as the Mirror, also looking wonderful – a really magical performance!

More darkness from Peter Tucknott as Hector who was charged with killing Snow White but in the end couldn’t bring himself to do it, although he looked the personification of evil.  An excellent cameo role.

The all important Dwarfs were played by Geoff Shorman, Jane Parratt, Vicky Brown, Rebecca Tanner, Hannah Buck, Mandy Edwards and Denise Rose.  They were a wonderful troupe but oh my!  - their knees must have suffered!  Well done to them all.

It’s always good to see The Sue Wood Dancers on stage who added very much to the production with their lovely dancing. The Band, under the direction of MD Marc Charlton made a great sound and accompanied everything in excellent fashion.

The scenery was well designed and looked just right and the full colour programme made very interesting reading.

So much work goes into a production of this nature which is, of course fun to do but hard work as well, so congratulations to all involved whether on the stage or behind the scenes.  Many thanks to Director David Buck, Choreographer Sue Wood and Musical Director Marc Charlton for bringing everything together to brighten up what can be a very dull part of the year.                                       

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