Stoaf and the Amazing Ice Cream Adventure

Pantomime is a very difficult and specific genre and I am afraid this for me was not quite a Pantomime. It was a well-written comedy with music and elements of pantomime, it had slapstick with the porridge scene, a dame, a hero, a wicked witch, the opportunity for audience participation and music, and dancing but it was all quite gentle and lacked the vitality usual in a pantomime. The night I saw it there were not many people in the audience and they were not very responsive, and so audience participation was poor, it might have been very different with a full house and children.

It was a lovely original fairy story that takes our hero Stoaf into a fantasyland, a bit reminiscent of ‘The Wizard Oz’, where all the everyday characters in Dorothy’s life are still there but changed in some way. The opening scene is at a typical Village Fair, with games to play, teas being served, an ice cream stall, the Vicar, villagers, Mrs Willoughbie, the aunt, and a manikin of a knight on guard outside a Wax Works. Stoaf, trips and receives a bump to the head and when he awakes everything has changed.   His Aunt has changed from a rather frumpish character to a bit of a glamour-puss full of fun and energy. The Vicar becomes ‘kettleman’ with a kettle on his head, the villagers become teapots, milk jugs, sugar bowls, spoons and cups, and the manikin becomes Cedric, the guard. At the end we return to the Village Fair with everyone returning to their original characters. The only ones to remain ’normal’ are young Stoaf and Didums, his dog.

The set originated from cartoons drawn by the author’s brother, which had been cleverly transferred into an amazing stage set. The basic set was an open stage with a large cube in the centre which could be rotated to change the location, with each face opening up to reveal a different interior. All of the interiors were well constructed with that of The Ice Cream Factory particularly impressive, with all the tubes and switches.  There were good lighting and sound effects throughout all well cued and operated. There were some good, well-cued dramatic effects for the witch, thunder and lightning, noises in the Ice Cream Factory and inside the Queen’s Castle, and for the transformation of the skeleton to the Queen. The set was changed by a band of ‘Pixies’ who danced their way on between scenes, which I found distracting at times.   

The production had been well costumed, with a lovely makeover for Mrs Willoughbie and change for the vicar. The witch was certainly different from the conventional, with purple hair and a shorter costume made of greens and purples. The costumes for the tea set were clever and instantly recognisable as the individual items. Diddums, the black and white dog, was able to frolic about with ease in his costume.

The original music from the pen of Geoff Royall was gentle, tuneful and fitted the story. It was well played by Peter Tims and Pam Smith, and well sung by the cast, who obviously enjoyed it. Time for Tea was a particularly cheerful song, with good diction from the cast. The movement for this song added to the enjoyment; and generally the choreography suited the ability of the performers and had been tailored to the story.

The cast brought the characters to life and were enjoyable to watch. Mostly the diction was good, but some of the younger members needed a bit more projection. Stoaf was a rather earnest child who encounters strange things and performs his tasks with diligence, and a little help from and over exuberant Diddums his canine companion, and a marvellous, mobility scooter riding knight, Cedric. The bubbly Mrs Willoughbie, his Aunt, was the sort of person any child would find embarrassing; with her surprising reactions each time ‘ice cream’ was mentioned. The scary witch had an amazing cackle and the animated teapots brought a lovely silliness to the story. 

It did not work for me as a Pantomime, as there was very little in the way of characters interacting directly with the audience to encourage response. Nevertheless it was a most entertaining evening.

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