Snow White, The Talent Show Edition

Whenever I attend The Halifax YMCA Youth Pantomime I know I am going to be seeing something totally different and new and this production was exactly that.

This was a totally “home grown” production, it was written by member,  Coral Carney, who knew exactly what the audience wanted, and she delivered it.

Coral was joined by Karen Rice to direct this piece.

This was the usual story of Snow White but with an added twist of having a talent show embedded in the story.

There were many, many characters in this production, far too many to name each one, however I can say that each and every one of them added to the overall enjoyment.

In the title role of Snow White, we had Lena Sawa who was perfect, she had a very good stage presence and was able to command the stage each time she entered it.

As with all good pantos we had a “baddy” in the guise of Helga Skelta, the Wicked Queen, who as we all know totally believes she is the fairest of them all, each time she asks The Mirror played to perfection by Molly Dent, who was totally encased throughout the whole production.

Helga Skelta is accompanied by Helta Skelter played by Will Hagon, who loves his food so much he continues to eat all the way through the production.

Much of the action takes place in Connie Custard’s bakery, Connie is the dame of the piece, who, in a change from tradition is played by a female actor, however, have no fear as Connie was in the very capable hands of Lola Carney Williams and she was superb, ruling the roost of the bakery at each entrance.

There is a quest in this piece to find a suitor for Snow White and one suitor we see is Ignatious Pompador, who is a very conceited but wealthy person who thinks he has to be the right one for Snow, Stanley Holmes was excellent in this character and was able to get every ounce of humour from it.

There is, however, another character who has his eyes set on Snow, that is Rupert Rhubarb, who although he looks starry eyed at he thinks he does not have a chance at actually taking her hand. Laura Tarchala was outstanding in this particular role, she performed well, danced well and was able to sing too, a definite triple threat.

As in all productions of Snow White the wicked Queen has a henchman who is called on to take Snow White into the woods and kill her, here we met Gruber who is Helga Skelter’s henchman, who although may appear to be as wicked as his mistress, deep down I think he is just a big softy. Charlie Shaw is another young actor who can deliver the goods with apparent ease.

When Snow is taken into the woods by Gruber, she finds the cottage where the dwarfs live, namely Quack, Okie, Merry, Kokie, Blush, Fizzy and Moody. All seven were able to cause merry mayhem whenever they entered the stage and Faith Wood, Nina Tarchala, Chloe Wells, Lyla Oxlade, Harriet Gornall, Katie May Alexander and Cemre Dogan respectively enjoyed every minute as much as their audience members.

As we saw in the title of this piece, this was The Talent Show Edition where the majority of the cast take part in the competition.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this piece which, as I say, was enjoyed by everyone in the audience on the day I was there.

Pantomime is certainly alive and very well in Halifax, I am very pleased to say.  

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