Wacky Western – A Little Panto on the Prairie

What a great frolic across the prairie this pantomime was and it was a delight to be at the opening performance of this newly written script.  With lots of scope to include our favourite cowboy jokes Steve Boyce has once again written a panto perfect for Snaith and Cowick Drama Group.  Directors, mother and son team, Lynn and Liam Tupling, had ensured that all of the cast were included as much as possible giving the show a real ‘family feel’ – which was essential when the majority of the supporting cast were part of the ever growing Rogers family.

Taking an innovative spin on panto (there was no traditional fairy character) this show was ideal for the summer because it still captured so much that is important particularly audience participation.  From the opening number the audience were expected to join in dancing and singing and a huge number of audience response lines.  Involving the audience really engaged everyone and as this group is so popular locally it was great for the audience to join in with their family, friends and neighbours on stage.

The storyline featured around a new sheriff coming to ‘Wild West Cowick’.  Steve Brewis took the role of Sherif Shadydeal giving the audience the chance to boo and hiss as he was definitely an archetypal panto baddie.  There were no less than three comedy double-acts in the production and we first met Jack Daniels (James Mitchell) and Jim Beam (Oliver Langton) the hapless bar tenders at The Last Laugh Saloon who welcomed us to the show and did a great job of setting the scene.    Then we are introduced Billy-Ray Rogers (Seamus McEnroe) and Mary-Lou Rogers (Edith Burton) who both engaged warmly with the audience and took a lead in keeping the whole brood of Rogers children in check.  Hasta Manana (Bronwen Mitchell) and Hesta La Vista (Caitlyn O’Sullivan) were the typical ‘Brokers Men’ who decided very early on that they didn’t want to do the dirty deeds of the Sheriff and quickly started to help their friends in the Wild West.

Heading up the Rogers family was Ma Rogers and Lynn Green clearly had her hands full with her huge family of children along with Emma Webb as Granny Rogers and Anthony Haley as Uncle Henry.  When Ma Rogers is ‘arrested’ by the Sheriff and dumped in the County Jail the whole community spring into action to rescue her only to find that more and more of the townsfolk are arrested too!

Also hailing from the saloon were ‘dancing girls’ Siri St Regis (Lynn Tupling) and Alexa Del Rio (Louise Barker) whose double-entendres had everyone giggling.   The landlady at the Last Laugh was Dame Mona Lott with Steve Boyce playing one of the best dressed panto dames in the region.  With the many stunning costume changes and cutting one-liners Boyce brings to life his characters with great style.  As well as working as consultant to the group Boyce also writes the scripts and uses every opportunity to build in local references as well as creating characters to include as many of the cast as possible.  The show featured a very clever sound bite medley which was particularly well done.

Principal girl and boy are integral to every panto plot and in this production we had Deputy Dan Dooright (Liam Tupling) and Polly-May Rogers (Leah Standing) who had just the right look of ‘lost in love’ as well as being confident in ensuring that good would overcome evil.  Dooright also had his trusty steed Trigger the Horse and beneath what must have been an excruciatingly warm horse skin was Anthony Haley – well done on such a hot afternoon.  The huge supporting cast of Rogers Children and Townspeople were very involved in the action with many having lines.  They all coped well with the handheld mic and sound across the piece was very strong.  Dancing was also very suited to the numbers used so congratulations to Seamus McEnroe and Lynn Tupling on choreography.

Sincere recognition must go to the costume team as the outfits worn on stage were worthy of any professional production.  There had been a huge amount of work put in to create such great themed outfits which were clearly bespoke to the characters.  Set, props, light and sound effects were strong with the technical team and stage management working well together.

Congratulations to the Performers, Production Team, Backstage Crew, Front of House Team and the Committee on a fun production which once again gave Snaith and Cowick a fabulous community panto involving not just the cast and crew, but the audience and wider community as well.

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