Thumbelina

Samantha Harvey wrote Thumbelina in 2016 for Deben Players Juniors but for this 2025 Panto she had updated it, adding new characters, songs and her own unique sparkly magic. The story is taken from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale telling the story of a young girl and her adventures with her animal friends. In this production her friends are mostly bees along with an owl, a mouse and a cat.

The set looked impressive with enormous, colourfully lit arches framing the stage and projected backdrops.   Samantha always pays attention to detail and she along with her helpers, had decorated both the stage and auditorium with an  enormous number of huge handmade flowers.

The show opened with the large ensemble performing the song ‘New Shoes’. They gave this and all their group songs plenty of lively energy both in their singing and dancing. Later in the circus scenes the younger members were amazing with their cartwheels, the splits and one younger member even keeping a hula-hop going around her waist throughout a whole musical number! Deben Players are blessed with the large number of talented youngsters in their membership, boding so well for the future.   Thumbelina was played by Rebecca Taylor. This talented young lady was confident both in her acting and with a beautiful singing voice. Later she told me she had taken up pole dancing and had persuaded Director, Samantha to include a sequence in their circus scene. She was very athletic and it fitted in well with the gymnastic performances of the circus. There has to be a Dame and here we see Simon Dodwell doing what he does so well in the form of Molly Mouse. He was accompanied by a great looking and confident ‘steam punk’,  Mighty Mouse, (Jack Dodwell). The two of them worked well together and soon got this first night audience warmed up. I am sure we will see this  promising father and son team developing more in the future.

Other characters included Prince Cornelius (David Farrow), his man servant Frank (Ben Coupe) and Olive, The Owl (Jo Rayner). They confidently performed their musical numbers  and entertained beautifully. Andy Kimber was Bobby, The Cat. This was a cleverly designed, large animated puppet which Andy worked skillfully and to good effect. The ‘baddies’ in this show were the suitably evil toads Zozo and her brother Gozo along with their two henchmen Mozo and Pozo. Together with the King and Queen,  they all kept the story flowing well as did the humorous narration by Fairy Nuff.   As in any traditional Panto the ‘baddies’ kidnap the principal girl, Thumbelina, until she is rescued by the Prince. As tradition dictates, there is also the ‘It’s behind you’ and slapstick scene which keep the younger elements of the audience amused.  Being an opening night there was only to be expected, a few nerves and stumbles along the way. These were covered well by the experienced performers especially Simon, the Dame. They, I’m sure, will get ironed out as the performances progress.

The costumes all looked fabulous, from the Dame’s numerous colourful outfits, to all the matching Bees and traditional circus costumes allowing the girls to perform their routines. There was also an effective dance number with these performers using rainbow umbrellas. It looked great. This and other dance numbers were well choreographed.

To Samantha and all her cast and crew, I wish you well with your remaining shows both before and after Christmas. Your audiences will love you and enjoy your performances as much as we all did last night.

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