The Wizard of Oz

For this year’s Christmas production Meryl Bunce had especially written this Panto styled version of the Wizard of Oz. Inspired by the novel of  L Frank Baum,  which was amazingly first published in 1900, it is still as popular today as it was all those years ago.

It has all the familiar characters plus some others in an interesting twist to this tale and opens in the  SODS News Studio.  Here we meet the two news presenters Julie (Kari Ingerslev) and Rick (John Jones).  These two work excellently together and are extremely believable in a ‘Good Morning’ style presentation as they each try to outdo the other. They then cross over to the Weather Girl, Carol (Charlotte Lamb) who is also Rick’s ex-wife  which leads to some interesting dialogue between the three of them. Carol forecasts the imminent twister storm in Kansas and  this is where the story as we know it starts.

Dorothy  is played by Tempany Clements a regular on the Stowmarket stage. She is confident in this role and delivers some good songs. She is accompanied by Aunt Em, the bigger than life Matthew Bendall. He has been in  SODS Panto’s for over 10 years and returns this year as the Dame. He is a very talented  song and dance man and here we see him communicating well with his audience. He looked splendid in all his numerous costumes. I lost count of all his costume changes and the wardrobe department certainly had their work cut out providing them all. He is accompanied by his  stage son Hank played by Charlie Jones, in reality Matthew is Charlie’s Uncle! This is Charlie’s  4th  panto and first leading role which he  captures perfectly.

Joe Marsh is the Scarecrow, with Johnny Ellis as the Tin Man and Carrie Chadwick as the Lion. All three looked absolutely brilliant in their costumes and work so well together to capture their characters excellently.  Carrie is also a very accomplished dancer, as she demonstrates in the early scenes and is also assistant choreographer. Well done Carrie.

As we all know with this story, there has to be the inevitable  Witches. The two good Witches of the North and the South are here played by Nyiesha Austin and Lauren Bunce.  These two compliment each other wonderfully and have a good rapport together. The third wicked Witch is played by Danielle Perkins and it is obvious that she really  enjoyed being the ‘baddie’ this year. This is a well cast trio conjuring up the differences between them.  Finally mention must go to the Wizard played by Paul Eggleston to complete this cast of strong principals.

This Panto is jam packed full of songs all confidently sung and energetically danced. Well done to Sharon, Jo and Carrie for their expertise in bringing these songs alive and with some innovative choreography.  The ensemble and principal dancers are all kept very busy as they portray numerous  different characters with all their costume changes.  There was also a good UV number, a fight scene, beautiful snow scene and the ‘it’s behind you’ scene which all the children in the audience love so much.  The set utilized some good visual effects projected onto a back screen along with some matching additional flats. Scenery along with effective lighting and sound enhanced the effect. As previously mentioned the numerous costumes all looked excellent, as did the make-up and apart from a couple of small items, all were produced in-house  by the talented wardrobe department and from SODS extensive own wardrobe collection.

Thank you to Peter Hawkes, SODS President, for looking after us so well  and to Jo and team for taking the time to come and greet us. Well done to Jo Chadwick  and all your talented team and cast for this enjoyable production playing to their very appreciative sell-out audience.

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