The Hundred and One Dalmatians

The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodle Smith has been adapted for the stage by Glyn Robbins. Director Jenny Green has an excellent cast for this production. The set is simple but very effective, the lighting and sound are good and there are great costumes.

Mr & Mrs Dearly, played by Vic Milne & Anna Clark, work well together as the humans. They live in their home with the staff Fiona Crosthwaite Eyre as Nanny Cook and Pat Porter as Nanny Butler.

The Dalmatians are great with Helen Young as Pongo and Lauren Philips as Missis who is excepting the arrival of their first puppies. Tilly Emm is the foster mother Perdita, brought in to help as they have fifteen in the end. All three have great costumes and hold the story together and are very good in their characters. I liked the dogs ‘singing’ along bit, that was funny.

Di Buck plays a great villainess as Cruella de Vil, who is the wife of a rich furrier, always on the lookout for new furs for her collection. She has her eyes set on the new Dalmatian pups. The audience soon get into the swing of booing her as they know she’s up to no good.

Cruella has two henchman, Rupert Bogart as Jasper and Mike Watson as Saul. Ttogether they make a great comedy duo and work very well together, I liked the Teddy Boy Suits and bright socks very much.

Other smaller parts that work well are Richard Barnett as Sir Charles, Caleb Brading-Ingram as Colonel Sheepdog, and Pru Short as Lieutenant Cat. There are lots of other smaller cameos within the story, all helping to find the puppies and everyone on stage was having fun and this comes over.

The Pups are split into two groups of children who play four named puppies during the run, we saw Charlotte Brown, Bella Murphy, Maisie Robinson and Isabelle Baert: all took on the role of puppies beautifully.  The others playing the same roles are Lenny Condra, Evangeline Shelton and Carys Metcalfe and Pheobe Metcalfe.
We really enjoyed the production, well done to all evolved.
 

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