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Wizard of Odd

Author: Kathryn Curry

Information

Date
6th February 2016
Society
Felton & Thirston Panto Society
Venue
Felton Village Hall. Northumberland
Type of Production
Pantomime
Director
Neal Skelton (asst. Dave Price)
Musical Director
Alison Rushby
Choreographer
Anne Raine

As ever this society attracts a huge community audience, and this year was no exception. The hall was packed and the audience was full of anticipation before the curtain even opened. We were not disappointed. From the word go Dame of the North Dave Hindmarsh had the audience in the palm of his hand. His energy is electric and he is hilariously outrageous which is just what we want from a dame. The panto was a laugh a minute and a real achievement from this very small local community group. This original script was written by Dave Price and Neal Skelton, and was full of the usual panto antics wound around their hilarious and extremely clever and innovative story of the ‘Wizard of Odd”.

Lauren Mc Gowran (Dorothy) and Abigail Inglis-Jones (Toto) were a great duo, working well together. Abigail was so young to take on this part, and amongst the mayhem and all the goings-on……she is to be congratulated for her stalwart performance and being so well rehearsed. She was the perfect ‘Toto’. As this original story unfolded there were many great twists and turns to give us lots of surprises.  The children in this society all play important parts, and, as ‘Minions’, they all had words to say which they did with confidence, and all could be heard clearly. They knew their songs and moves and contributed a real ‘x factor’ to the journey through ‘Odd’.

Anne Raine (Wicked Witch of the West) was really on the ball, milking her part to the full and engaging the audience in much hissing and booing. Well done Anne! Chris Jones (Worzel Gummidge) and Vicky Ferguson (Alcan Man) were traditionally very good in their parts, and we awaited their third component which, much to our surprise, was Phoebe Rowell as The Donkey and Bob George as Shrek. They were excellent, as Phoebe had the donkey character perfect, and Bob was hilarious and so realistic.  A nice little touch was the navigator ‘Thomas Thomas’ Tom Tom, played by Anna Grace Harvey, who led us through the panto ensuring we did not lose our way. There were too many characters to mention by name, but they all did their roles justice and the whole show moved at a rigorous pace with the audience rolling in the aisles with laughter. Yet again the local vicar was the butt of the ‘Dames’ teasing humour. I did say dames…. as what would the show be without the introduction late on in the panto of Dave Hindmarshes’ side kick Joanna Lumley from Morpeth! This was such a funny routine and of course ‘Joanna’ became the ‘Wiz’ (Dave Price) who eventually became ‘Elvis’ bizarre I know……but what an absolute hoot the whole ending was. Dave, your ‘Elvis’ impersonation was just brilliant. Even our dear Neal Skelton (writer) arriving in the form of Doctor Who, and, wearing an original Doctor Who scarf and hat, gave us a final surprise and twist. He is always so easy and comfortable on stage, and the audience love him.

What a fun-packed evening this was. This wonderful production was the result of such hard work by the whole society both on stage and back stage, and deserved the thunderous round of applause given by the audience at the end. With a colourful set, good lighting, slick scene changes and the input of Alison Rushbys original songs and lyrics I congratulate you all and look forward in anticipation to seeing what you come up with next year.  You must also be credited for changing the format of the music as it was so much more dynamic. Well done to everyone involved and, as ever, thank you for your very warm welcome and hospitality.

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