Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs

When I arrived at The Normanton Academy to see this production, I was greeted as I always am by various members, one of whom was Sue Sheppard, who not only directed this panto, but also wrote it.

To try your hand at writing a panto, or any play or musical is no mean feat, but I have to say Sue had written a superb panto which had all the laughs, great characters who had some excellent lines plus a good deal of hissing and booing from everyone in the audience.

As with all pantos you need a Dame who is able to take control of things, or so she thinks, step up Tom Bucktrout who was every bit the Dame Flossie which we all came to love, he opened the show to get the audience in the bright mood and he did this with his own brand of humour, which they loved.

In the title role of Snow White, Wendy Westmoreland was superb, she was the sweet innocent English Rose who was able to deliver her lines, dance the steps and also sing the songs with ease.

As we all know Snow White has a wicked stepmother, Grizabella who tries to get rid of her stepdaughter by feeding her with a poisoned apple. Enter Pam Robinson who the audience loved to hate; she was every bit the evil stepmother with a wicked laugh which would frighten even the strongest of men.

We all know Grizabella relies on her trusted mirror to give the right answer, or the answer she wants, each time she asks who is the fairest one of all, of course all the time she gets told it is Snow White and not her. Carole Whelpton, the set and props co-ordinator, had developed a very good Magic Mirror, a dressing table complete with a lighted mirror and a mystic figure behind it. The voice, and indeed body of the mirror was Richard Goodall, whose droll delivery of the lines was perfect.

Queen Grizabella has a Spy in the guise of Spyke, here we had another excellent actor, Jordan Whipp who was made for this part, he certainly made it his own and the audience loved him.

As with all good pantos this one had a couple of “broker’s men”, known here as Dib and Dab played by Claire Heins and Sarah Clarkson respectively. These two worked extremely well together, complimenting each other throughout, I loved the spelling game which they did with a member of the audience and her young son although I am not too sure which one enjoyed the custard pie the most!

We all know Snow White meets her prince who wakes her with a kiss after her stepmother tried to poison her with the apple, step up Becky Thompson as Prince Valiant, who was outstanding, her voice blended exceptionally with that of Wendy, and she was able to strut around the stage with ease. The prince also has a companion, Count Carlo played here by Paul Newbigin, who proved to be a good foil to Prince Valiant and between them made a perfect pair.

When Grizabella tries to kill Snow White, she entrusts the task to Dib and Dab but they decide instead to take her into the forest and leave rather than kill her. In the forest Snow White finds the Woodland People who Grizabella had put a spell on turning them into trees and twigs. When Snow White meets them they introduce themselves in song and dance which was truly magical.

Also, in this piece we have seven little men, or dwarfs, these were played by some of the youngsters in the society, namely:

Layla-Grace Clemo as Boss, Paige Gray as Windy, Mitchell Vaughan as Greedy, Amelia Brook as Misery, Rosie Johnson as Dodgy, Lilly Davenport-Wild as Giggle and Melody Walton-Turek as Snorer, all of whom were able to keep in their respective characters and deliver their lines like true professionals.

All the above principals were ably supported by chorus and dancers of both adults and youngsters who certainly were enjoying themselves.

Congratulations must go to Sue Sheppard for the vision and inspiration to write the script for this panto, to Joel Griffin as Musical Director and also to Bev Maher and Amanda Walker for their fine choreography in this piece.

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