The Snow Queen

We were treated to an atmospheric start to this pantomime on this Winter evening, it might have been comparatively mild outside but it was definitely cold inside as the curtains opened to reveal a figure shrouded in white with ‘ice’ swirling around. Here in the prologue, we were introduced to the Snow Queen played by Frankie Penfold and Harry Bird as Jack Frost this couple worked well together bouncing off each other in their quest to get the sliver of mirror from Kai’s heart. My wish was that although Jack Frost is an evil character that there would be an occasional smile, after all it is pantomime. These two gave us a good rendition of Madonna’s ‘Frozen’.

When the back drop was revealed for the town of Ikea, it was clear that a lot of work had been put into painting a great winter townscape, the back cloths were good for all scenes and also for the painting of the flats either side of the pros arch. To complement the scenery there were some good costumes throughout although I suddenly thought that we had an interloper from Robin Hood when Kai first appeared. There were good performances from Maddie Cole as Gerda who gave us a confident performance and a nicely sung duet of ‘Girlfriend’ with Olivia Day as Kai. We had our traditional pantomime Dame Nelly Knickerbocker played by a bearded Jim Coote (I’m yet to be convinced by bearded pantomime dames), this again was a confident performance with a range of costumes and a good rendition of Mika’s ‘Ice Cream’ Nelly along with her side kick Olaf – Emily Prince entertained us with traditional repartee and we had a well performed scene with Nelly’s Creamy Treats. Some really good props here, a good ice cream cart that was also raided with glee by the villagers and children of Ikea, all of whom were used effectively to fill out the ensemble numbers.

There was an entertaining closing number to Act 1 set in the Garden of Seasons with the Queens of the Seasons Carrie Ingram-Gettins as Autumn, Megan Abbott as Spring and Jenny Ives as Summer all led by Emily Blake as Mother Nature as they sung ‘Something New’ by Girls Aloud. Not to be left out was Anthony Culy as The Mayor and Steve Jackson playing both Santa and the bridge Troll.

However, to my mind two of the stand out characters were Willy and Chilly played respectively by Steve Brooks and Dale Hornsby (a role taken over literally that day as Sam Lord had been taken ill). This pair gave us great entertainment in their inflatable Penguin costumes, a great double act, there was no distraction with Dale holding a script, we all knew why. Willy’s rendition of Frank Sinatra’s ‘Come Fly with Me’ really played to his strengths, really good.

Amy Power as musical director should be pleased with the singing throughout the show, the company numbers were well performed and clear to hear. There was generally strict choreography always allowing for the movements of the youngest cast members with nice cameos from some of the youngsters Lacey Backhouse, Sophie Mycock, Freya Pontin and Alice Hornsby and although not a named character Edison Culy performs well on stage. It was nice to see the senior dancers with their own routines and lovely to see smiles on stage particularly from Jane and Amy. It’s so important to smile on stage, it also makes the singing sound better. Sound and Light was as has come to be expected from the Technical team at Watlington.

Director Megan, MD Amy and Choreographers Becca and Jess Field should be pleased with this production

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.