The Emperor's New Clothes

The Emperor’s New Clothes, St Neots Players’ choice of panto this year, is becoming a regular addition to the panto circuit. This is the third variation of this classic folk story by Hans Christian Andersen I have seen recently.  Jilly McNeil’s adaptation sticks to the central theme of the story but with a panto twist.

The staging was good. Excellent backcloths for the two main scenes with well made large items of props used when necessary.  The technical team (Matt Oram and Dan Cooper) did a grand job. Lighting was great and sound kept at a good level.  There were a couple of blips with the body mics but nothing mega.  The variety of costume styles didn’t have a set theme but in the main worked okay.  Given the Emperor was all dressed in red and gold the bland dress for both the Empress and the Princess did come over as a bit insipid.  Music was backing tracks and vocally talents were varied. Conversely, all the ensemble numbers were first-rate. 

We were in no doubt that we were going to enjoy the show — we were told we were by the two inept guards Lor and Norder (George Kelly and Ian Francis) who were on and off throughout the show ensuring we were obeying orders.  There was certainly no doubt that these two worked their socks off.   There didn’t appear to be any “major” roles as such so not much meat for the main characters to get their teeth into. Good confident performance from Tom Monkhouse as The Emperor nicely supported by Lynda Collins as his Empress. On the “goodie” side we had the petite Sara Shover as Isabella the Emperor’s daughter supported by her friend Emily played by Danielle Williams.   The Principal Boy and Isabella’s love interest was played by Kacey Munns as the Prince called Junior (I missed the explanation for that) with Edmund Cave as Tom, Junior’s friend. The latter two were kept in check by an extremely stroppy Fairy Lights loudly but well-played by Lucy Goldstone.  

Fairy Lights though almost (but not quite) met her match with Maxine McKay who was in her element as the evil Duchess intent on making her brother the Emperor into a laughing stock by creating a suit of invisible clothes and ruling in his place.  In order to do this she needed the help of her two hench-women Stitch and Itch played with a nice comedic feel by Gemma Adams and Charlotte McKay respectively.  

Tony Knox as Dame Doonothing spent her time endeavouring to keep everyone in order whilst creating havoc herself by constantly blowing up the Emperor’s kitchen. A nice performer with an excellent voice.   The Principals were ably supported by the Ensemble Keeley Randall, Tom Kirkbride, Heather Fischer and Zack Fischer.

A highlight of the show and adding energy, colour and sparkle were the young dancers from Bees Academy of Dance who were absolutely stunning and at times breathtaking with their dancing and gymnastic skills. These eighteen young dancers plus a mini-Freddie Mercury made a huge contribution to the production. Congratulations to Choreographer Amy Jo Emery.

On a night with weather temperatures below zero it was great to be in the warm friendly atmosphere of a St Neots Players’ panto especially as the audience understood panto rules and joined in with gusto.  There was no sing-a-long where the audience was divided in half — oh no — this was replaced by a manic ten minutes of a race to pass a giant beach ball from front to back and back again.  Pleased to say that VAR decided that my half won!   Thank you St Neots Players, Director Marina Coleman-Rivers and all involved for a fun evening. 

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