The Little Mermaid

I have never seen The Little Mermaid performed as a pantomime before, so I was really interested to see how it would work as a pantomime, I was really impressed with the script, it was genuinely funny and some of the fish puns were ingenious.

Louise Atkins as the Musical Director made some inspired and original music choices that worked well.

Rachael King played Bastian the crab who played the audience friend and she worked the audience very well.  Dame Dusty was effortlessly played by David Atkins, his pace was excellent, and the delivery of every single joke was on point, as cliched as some of the puns and jokes were, I found myself laughing because of his delivery and pace, there was no time for me to think of the punch line first!

Barbara Perry portrayed Captain Aargh and her characterisation was lovely and the partnership with Dame Dusty was a real highlight, especially the gardening slapstick routine, which I understand was written by the director.

Abi Daniels who played Mariel had a lovely voice, which really suited the song choices especially Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.  Amadeus Hall played Prince Derek, he had charm and held himself well as the Prince, I did feel that Defying Gravity was an ambitious song choice for a male voice.

Octavia was evilly played by Alison Bass, she worked the audience well, but I felt there were missed opportunities for audience participation, which would have given her more chance to revel in the boos.  Emily Rowley continued in the evil vein well after cleverly transforming into a younger Octavia.  I really enjoyed Callum Masterson and Kathy Young as Corky and Crusty the dim double act, they were funny and worked well as a pair, the children and adults in the audience clearly enjoyed the banana routine!

Patrick Key gave Triton the authority needed for the role and his costume was excellent and enhanced his performance.  The six mermaids played by Zoe Nesteriuc, Rebecca Noble, Emma Battom, Michelle Marks, Willow Harman and Kelly-Marie Hathaway, had some lovely lines and looked great as a group, at times I found it difficult to hear all of their lines, however this could have been because of where I was sitting.

I like the set; it was designed well by Anna Fraser-Medcalf, and the director had clearly thought about setting and how to cover without multiple blackouts, this is something that really helped with the pace.  The underwater set with the wavy backdrop and fish sliding across stage, had lovely detail and was very clever.

I must make a special mention to the costume team, Sarah Beadle, Beth Davies, Paula McQueen, Beth Moorley and Laura Willmott, the costumes were all made, and they were very effective, special mention for the Dame’s costumes, always tricky but they were beautifully accompanied by lovely wigs.  This was a real strength of the show and an obvious strength of the society.

Thank you to Michael Young for his hospitality, and once again congratulations on a good pantomime.

Scott Welch

District 9

NODA East

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