I’ll admit its been a few years since I have been to a pantomime, in fact more than I care to remember so I am not sure who was more excited, myself or my 4 year old daughter when taking her to see her first ever theatre production.
As a child, I performed at The Lighthouse in Poole and we returned there to watch the opening night of their self-described, family pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk. Produced by Duncan Reeves Productions, written by and starring Peter Duncan and directed by Jay Worthy, this promised to be a night of fun and laughter with a few little twists.
For those also attending with young children, note there is a stand at the entrance to the theatre selling all sorts of flashing and spinning wands and swords ranging in price from £5 - £8.
The show boasts performers Peter Duncan formerly of Blue Peter as Dame Trott, Connor Byrne from Tracey Beaker and The Dumping Ground as The Squire and former Sugababe Amelle Berrabah as the Good Garden Fairy.
The show promises a planet-saving themed panto “packed with songs, laughter and great spectacle.” Did it deliver? Most definitely.
The casting was fantastic, and I have to say, it makes a change that everyone from the youngest to the oldest could sing and sing well. There wasn’t a bum note the entire evening, despite there being some tricky solo notes for some of the younger cast. Bethan-Wyn-Davies who played Jill had the most incredible voice that filled the room. There were a couple of songs I didn’t recognise but plenty up-to-date and current chart songs as well as a few older ones for the adults and of course the standard sing-along-song at the end, led by Dame Trott.
The music itself was well performed by the live band and even when there was a slight hiccough with timing, as there always is on opening night, it was ad-libbed into the moment beautifully.
Performance wise, the cast bounced off each other very well. Considering the size of the performance space, it was impressive how many performers were able to be on stage at one time. Jack, played by Alex Lodge, had a lovely naivety to his performance but excellent comic timing and movements that reminded me a little of Tommy Steele. He interacted very well with the audience and was a delightful male lead, creating wonderful empathy from the audience and chemistry with Jill.
Connor Byrne as The Squire surprised us all when he claimed a desire to want to be a ballet dancer and actually proved to have talent when he was leaping, pirouetting and performing other balletic techniques. Dame Trtot was equally as wonderful and almost totally stole the show with her side-splitting moments both planned and unplanned. She was rather over-enthusiastic with her movements at one point and her wig came flying off much to the delight of the audience and was simply slipped back of without so much as a blink.
The true star has to be Buttercup the cow who was magically able to produce by a bottle of gold topped milk and a banana milkshake! The supporting cast of children and young performers were stupendous, especially the little girl playing a young Greta Thunberg; mark my words, we will be seeing a lot more from her in the years to come.
The overall production was well thought out – the first half of the pantomime performed in the village and the majority of the second half performed in the clouds and the giant's castle. I was unsure as to whether or not we would see an actual giant or just hear his voice but lo and behold a really big giant did appear and he was very well done. Perhaps a little more “dumb” than scary looking once he appeared but nevertheless, he played the part well and his accomplice Fleshcreep, played by Jay Worthy, had the evil side covered for him.
From interaction with the audience to songs and dancing, from costumes and sets to words and performance this is an all-round brilliant evening that you could see even the adults enjoyed. Not too loud or overly scary, for those wondering if young children can handle it. My little one does scare, and she was happy and has not stopped Fe, Fi, Fo, Fumming ever since.
Did we enjoy it? Oh yes we did!!
Reviewer - Katie Davis
on - 13/12/19
No comments:
Post a Comment