Up the Beanstalk Again

The Conservative Club in Swaffham doesn’t allow a large performance space or a large audience number, although this does produce quite a convivial atmosphere, the bar is also close to hand at club prices which probably helps the audience to be relaxed and therefore appreciative, although I wasn’t expecting some of the language, which I discovered later had been toned done a little. John Dawkins, Chairman, always makes one welcome and we had a good chat in both the interval and after the show.

This performance is a play within a play which reminded me of Beaumont and Fletcher’s ‘Knight of the Burning Pestle’ and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. However, I was amused to note that some audience members hadn’t realised this, of which more later. The story line couldn’t help reminding me of both ‘The Dresser’ and ‘Noises Off’ to some degree.

The action takes place mainly backstage in Laurence’s dressing room and then with small peeks at sections of the on-stage performance of Jack and the Beanstalk. To enable this to happen, the performance space, there is no stage as such, was split in two. One third of the space being a small stage, presumably used for bands etc., was used for the little excerpts of Jack and the Beanstalk, the rest being the dressing room, the two spaces being separated by the dressing room clothes rail which was swiveled to open up the ‘theatre stage’ and by good use of lighting.

This was almost a two hander as the greater part of the dialogue was between Lawrence played by Stuart Travis and Angela played by Sue Baxter, certainly in the second act where there were many excerpts from Shakespeare’s plays. Here Stuart’s performance reminded me very much of Sir Ian McKellen in terms of language, accent and delivery. A character now playing the Pantomime Dame in the provinces who was past his best and knew it, Stuart showed his emotions of anger and sadness well and the realisation of pending loneliness, some dialogue was spitted out in anger and frustration and this was well displayed. A lot of dialogue to learn, which was well delivered and clear, this therefore was a shame that when he made his appearance on stage as the Dame some of the audience didn’t realise that the forgetting of lines and the prompting from backstage was all part of the script. I heard one audience member just behind me say ‘he’s forgotten his lines’ they obviously hadn’t been following the story line. Stuart had, as the Dame, the traditional array of costumes but a rather unusual make-up style, his mouth reminding me more of ‘The Joker’ from Batman rather a Panto dame. He gave a performance that showed the sadness of lost love.

Angela was portrayed well by Sue, again a very wordy role, a character who also has to show the emotions of lost love, for the love of a gay man, but also the need for the love of someone else who would care for her and give her some sort of stable family life at a time of her life when she needed it. All this was clearly displayed in performance, style and dialogue, although her emotions ran along the same way as Laurence’s they had to be presented in a different way which they were. A suitably expressive performance again.

Two good solid performances ably supported by Rodger Bilverstone as Jack who was the up and coming young Soap Star, Hayley Annakin and Philip Wagner as husband and wife team Pat and Eric who played the Pantomime Cow, professionals looking towards retirement, Vic Tucker who played Angela’s love interest Harry and Nicky Dawkins who as Gemma was whom would be described in Rep as the Ass Stage Manager and was voice of the ‘back stage prompt’. These roles brought the Pantomime to life as well as the backstage bickering and interaction in the dressing room. Performed well they added to the production.

Despite one or two prompts this was a good solid production, in the space available a good ‘box’ set, well-furnished and decorated, good Dame and Panto costumes, the general costumes suitable for the roles portrayed and a correct range of props, a suitable pantomime back drop on the small stage, clear diction and an enthusiastic cast. Well done to all, thank you for inviting me.

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