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Panto is a form of folk art and Parish Players can be justly proud of
following in that tradition with this year’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’, written by
Chris Abbott and directed by Maggie Chick. There is something very charming
about community panto – and this year’s was truly a community event, with
script, actors, musicians, backstage – every part of it of local provenance.
It was performed in the Parish Hall between Wednesday 3rd
and
Saturday 6th
January 2007,
including the usual matinee whose proceeds, £900, this year were donated to
the NSPCC in memory of Joan Newton.
Musical direction was
by David Williams, ably supported by Louise, Will and Jake in the band. They
did an excellent job in weaving together the show and creating the
atmosphere of enjoyment. The original songs made for added interest; I
particularly liked the Huntsmens’ song which was well-pitched for the
available voices and a good strong number for this climactic scene. The
balance of the band with the singers was good and arrangements were
interesting and varied. I did wonder whether the solo singers might have
been miked, as long as the sound could be reliably balanced. The younger
soloists sang beautifully but not always entirely audibly; it’s a tough ask
of an untrained voice.
The Chorus looked
delightful, dressed in their timeless, all-purpose bucolic garb; they had a
clear confidence both in their words and moves. They sang strongly in all
the big numbers and had clearly been well directed musically. Upbeat songs
were without that sense of strain you sometimes get when striving for volume
and at times the tone was truly sweet. The highlight for me was the lovely
‘Hushabye Mountain’ where everything came together visually and vocally in a
really pleasurable end to the first half.
Toni Conyers looked
exquisite as the Fairy Queen while Emily Miller looked imposingly hideous as
the wicked fairy Belladonna– two delightful outfits in what was an excellent
show for costume, and appropriately characterful make-up. Both these actors
spoke with good projection and excellent timing; and, since the exposition
of the plot came through their parts, that was pretty important. Emily toyed
with the audience provocatively, while Toni managed to give her fairy a few
rather arch moments. A fairy queen with attitude.
Simon Cheetham made a
splendidly querulous Lord Chamberlain – with more than a touch of Malvolio
about this portrayal. He was slick in his comic business scenes too,
particularly the magic hat routine. While we are on the subject of comic
routines, I felt that in general these might have benefited from a little
tightening up. Simon’s singing was excellent and his original song ‘I’m not
Little Tina Turner’ was enjoyable for an athletic capering rarely equalled
on the Parish Hall stage.
chunky
the Flunky and Harold the Herald, played respectively by Chrissy Watson and
Caroline Chick had a couple of great names between them and were extremely
well cast as the comic duo. I liked their costumes too! We are familiar with
Chrissie’s comic genius but Caroline also came into her own in this role
with her gangly-gauche movements and the way she used a variety of physical
techniques to point the comedy. They played well off each other and made the
most of their roles.
Dame Ammonia
Winterbotham, played by Chris Abbot, had a wonderful name and a wardrobe to
match; it was lovely to see some glorious new costumes. She had an engaging
manner and a good rapport with the audience – a very genial dame. There was
perhaps a little vocal unevenness as though she was just getting used to her
new pitch, but her ad libs were enjoyable. Her jokes, it must be said, were
a little on the lame side and perhaps aimed more at the matinee audience
than the Saturday nighters.
I enjoyed Andrea
Matsell’s Queen Hypertensia, a well-written part with some good scope for
characterisation which she exploited to the full. Her movement is always
good in character roles- remember ‘I love to cry at weddings’? Her
performance here was very funny indeed. Richard Warner’s King Rollo was a
suitably benign foil, with a good range from champion of the riff-raff to
protector of his daughter to some good comic business in the balloon ballet.
Both are good comedians and again, they were blest with distinctive and
suitably storybook regal costumes.
It’s been a long time
coming but I think it’s time to mention the ‘littlies’, Joshua, Toby, Abi
and Maya. This is the best use I have ever seen made of little people in any
pp panto – what genius to make them the visiting princes and princesses and
give them lines to say!! And didn’t they do brilliantly! All dressed up to
the nines and doing exactly as they had been asked. The device for growing
up princess Aurora worked beautifully and what an enchanting pose you got
from Abi Payne, the smallest princess. The flower fairies Bluebell, Wisteria
and Petunia , (Rosie Francis, Francesca Mason and Danielle Matsell), danced
with considerable elegance and charm in their lovely outfits and added a
touch of true class to the production. That whole scene of the christening
was well staged and a visual treat.
Incidentally, the baby
Aurora was pretty good too; I loved her fearful trembling in her mother’s
arms as the evil spell was cast. All the puppets were impressive and Neil
Hellard, their operator, is to be congratulated on his technique. The stork
in the opening scene was well-received, as was the dragon. However more
could have been done with the lighting plot here: Belladonna needed a more
gruesomely green spot and the Fairy Queen a correspondingly marked pink. The
dragon would have benefited from spot lighting too, particularly during his
song ’It isn’t Easy Being Green. One scene which worked well in terms of
lighting and choreography was the skeleton dance- very macabre.
Princess Aurora was a
spirited and charming performance from Olivia Cheetham, who used her eyes to
good effect and had great stage presence as well a lovely singing voice. She
interacted with fellow performers confidently
and dealt with
some audience barracking with
considerable aplomb. Prince Florizel, Charlie Hamblin, lit up the stage on
his entry – he has an engaging presence and a natural energy in
performance. The young casting here was very successful and I was glad the
romance between the principals was handled with a light touch.
The second half of the
show came up against a problem intrinsic to this story – where to go with
the plot after the awakening scene. At this point, we could have done with a
few more developments to weave together the varied pantomime sketches - and
see a little more of Prince Florizel in action! Most obviously, he needed to
deal with that dirty green fairy who didn’t ever get vanquished as a baddie
should. Perhaps King Rollo should have set him some challenges to prove
himself worthy of Aurora’s hand?
Implicit in all of the
above is an awareness of how hard everyone worked to turn Chris’s script
into a fully realised show, not least Maggie Chick whose direction pulled
the rabbit out of the hat so splendidly. Congratulations to all concerned.
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