Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs

The fact this was the second Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs I had seen in the same week did not deter me from enjoying this lively production of  Peter Crussell’s script especially written for Youth Acts Up.  The cast of the production, made up of 7 to 16 year olds were on good form for the first of two performances on Saturday 25 January.  I saw many in this cast in their excellent production of Seussical JR last year and they stayed true to form.   

Ella-Mae Alsop was excellent as the wicked Queen May.  She commanded the stage in her every appearance just as the Wicked Queen should.  A novel version of the magic mirror was Alexa extremely well played by Lottie Martin, this was a fine performance and well done for delivering all the Alexa-type information so clearly.  Kaylee-Rae Heaps was Wizard Wiseman to whom the Queen turned for her spells.  Daniel Stewart made a pretty regal King John and Evie Bennett did well as Snow White.  She was nicely supported by Lexi Gipp as her friend Penny Lane.  Freya Wallace was the Huntsman who Snow White secretly loved.  This was nicely played but watch your projection.  Sophie Rutterford, statuesque, as the Fairy Godmother handled her solo well.   A nice pairing was Huw Morris as Prince and Shane Gray as Gerald. Good characterisation from both, particularly Gerald whose growing exasperation with the Prince was brought out well.  Of course Snow White would not manage without the Dwarfs and these Dwarfs were very lively.  Well done to Abbey-Rose Alsop, Calam Wallace, Nathan Bennett-Bullman, Lydia Port-Burke, Grace Butcher, Lorenzo Harrison and Macey Arnold.  Playing double roles as Rat/Jitterbug were Wilbur Gienke and Heidi Silvester, who zoomed about with great energy. 

As this is panto there had to be a Dame and what a good Dame Riley Martin was.  Good stage presence, excellent delivery and great interaction with the audience.  Well done.  Another actor who has a way with the audience and seems, instinctively, to know how to deliver a comic line is William Silvester playing Hoo Zat.  He did an amazing job and worked well with his ‘Mum’ Dame Honoria Zat and his brother Wot Zat well played by Sienna Graham. This trio were absolutely splendid.  The Hoo and Wot cross-talk between Wot and Queen May was extremely good and very funny. 

The Little Downham Village Hall facilities are fairly limited and the stage is small.  Using the thrust through the middle of the audience might give the cast a bit of height but it is difficult to light and when used for singing and dancing is noisy which distracts from the main action.  The way the cast manage on such a small stage is admirable and everyone carried out the songs and choreography (by Director Becky Green) very well indeed.  Costumes were good as was the  lighting.  The music and sound effects laid down by MD Mark A J Checkley and operated by Adam Hebbard were super.  Sound levels started off a bit loud so we didn’t hear much of what was obviously a well performed number by Dame Zat and her sons.  Fortunately this was soon corrected and all was well.

 This was a very enjoyable afternoon.  Congratulations to all members of the cast and crew. To Director Becky Green, Producer Carol Hebbard and Peter Crussell who wrote a script which was set at just the right level for the talents of this young company.I am sure Mr Crussell will agree they did it full justice.  Thank you Youth Acts Up.

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