The Sleeping Beauty

This was a new and updated script written by Andy Gribben with the main action taking place in either the castle or in front of tabs. There were 2 casts alternating between performances due to the length of the run i.e. three weeks.

Annie Eddington, as the bad fairy, Distaff, performed strongly in this role and was suitably evil. She soon had the audience hissing and booing at her. In fact, the audience was very enthusiastic and noisy in all the right places ! Alise Balode, as the good fairy, Slumber, was gentle and concerned and eventually triumphed over the bad fairy. However, it was difficult in places to hear her adequately. Tom Eddington, as the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Lovell, played a good role, simpering and bowing and trying hard to impress with his so called “knowledge” of French. His lack of real knowledge was, of course, laid bare by Prince Borealis, played by Alison Crawley who was a traditional thigh slapping prince. King Cornetto, played by Mark Saberton, and Queen Sally , the dame, played by Malcolm Hollister, worked well together and complimented each other well. Queen Sally was extravagant and outrageous in the role whilst King Cornetto, in contrast, was rather lacklustre. Of course, there was a beautiful princess, Aurora, played with great charm by Ashleigh Jackson-Lake. There was a major role for Simpson, the servant, played extremely well by Natalie Pimm who was onstage constantly and she had some really good facial expressions.

Elin Massey played Gertie and the cast was completed by Tick ( Jaclyn Taylor) and Tock (Kerys Stephens) who, together with the Cuckoo (Neil Arbon) provided comedy front of tabs whilst scenery and props changes were made.

And, of course, I must mention Dragon, a handsome and beautifully made puppet !

Apart from a couple of snippets of songs, there were only two major musical numbers involving all the cast, one at the beginning of Act One and the other at the end of Act Two. Neither seemed to particularly complement or add to the script and I thought that they could have been sung with more enthusiasm and gusto by the cast. Nevertheless, they served to set the action at the beginning and to wind up the panto. I did feel that, in places, the script did not fully reflect the obvious talent of the cast on stage.

Lighting and sound effects were really good especially the two different lighting effects on both fairies in Act Two and the sound of the gun being fired with the accompanying smoke. All added greatly to the atmosphere in this really lovely theatre. Costumes (Sara Knight) were generally very good and effective and the set, ably constructed by a large number of helpers, was very well designed and flexible. Most scene changes were effected by the use of props and the Stage Managers and backstage team worked hard to ensure the changes were timely.

Director, Adam Webster, and Assistant Director, Helen Arbon, did a great job in pulling this production together and, ably assisted by Musical Director, Neil Arbon and Choreographers Jaclyn Taylor and Gemma Mayes produced an evening of great family fun which was very much appreciated by the audience. We enjoyed the evening a great deal !

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