Sam Cunningham Elsby as Tommy the Cat with
Phoebe O'Reilly as Fairy Bowbells left and Chloe Lees and Ellie Vaughan
as Pixies Sprinkle and Twinkle right with the ensemble in between
Dick Whittington
Hall Green Little Theatre
*****
(includes a bonus star for delighting so many
happy youngsters)
Pantos are normally judged on standard
criteria such as acting, script, entertainment value and the like, but
at Hall Green pantos are judged more on decibels, the louder the better.
Not that this panto doesn't tick all the usual
critic's boxes, after all it's well acted, has a traditional script,
it's entertaining, fun and family friendly but over the years the panto
has taken on a far, far more important role – but more of that later.
Back in London town we find Alderman Fitzwarren's
emporium overrun by hordes of rats led by King Rat, played with a Del
Boy confidence by Daniel Robert Beaton as a sort of graduate of the Bob
Hoskins school of Rattery, aided by his lieutenants Suzzo and Henchy
played by Oisin Fitzpatrick and James Lickman. The King is never scary
enough to frighten, but is evil enough to be a baddy – cue boos . . .
lots of them while his death scene could well have been turned into a
six part mini series. Had it been any longer it would have still have
been going on in the next production as well . . .
Jamie McNicol demonstrating the Alderman
Fitzwarren two step
The Alderman is played with some authority, and
somewhat lesser intelligence in his tricorn hat by Jamie McNicol, who,
incidentally, looks remarkably like the bloke who plays his seafaring
twin brother, Horatio, in a different tricorn hat, and who is the
captain of a ship in the nearby docks. Funny you never see the pair
together . . .
The Alderman is struggling to stay afloat, unlike
his nautical brother, with the rats eating him out of house and . . .
well, shop.
He does have some help . . . a word perhaps doing
a lot of heavy lifting here when it comes in the shape of Idle Jack,
played by Thomas John, who does a splendid job as the panto's
Jack-the-lad comic character, building an immediate rapport with the
audience, as does Richard Scott as Sarah the Cook, one of panto's
obligatory blokes in a dress as the traditional dame.
He, or is it she, is on the lookout for a bloke
and, to be honest, is not too fussy, any Fitzwarren will do. Keeping
with tradition we have the Alderman's daughter Alice, the sensible,
pretty one in the emporium's ranks, played with innocent charm by Bella
Haycock, and, as we all know tradition demands she will fall for . . .
Dick Whittington.
Richard Scott as Sarah the Cook
And slap my thigh, when it comes to tradition,
Dick is a welcome throwback to the days when the Principal Boy was . . .
a girl, here in the hands of the always dependable Rachael Ludlam, in
her bicorn hat and traditional pantomime boots. And Dick ahs to have a
cat, in this case Sam Cunningham Elsby as Tommy who brilliantly manages
to bring a wordless role to sparkling life with telling meows and
gestures.
So, after the shipwreck on the voyage to Africa
we have a magic show for The Empress of Morocco, played by Sonya
Jackson, where Jack executes some simple but effective magic tricks with
well-practised confidence. Why on a ship to Morocco you might ask . . .
well I suppose Horatio wanted to be in it at some point, having dressed
up, and Jonathan Richardson had designed and built a ship so it might as
well be used and . . . oh, you'll just have to come along and see for
yourself.
In the background, helping out when needed we
have the fairy flying squad led by Fairy Bowbells, played by Phoebe
O'Reilly and Chloe Lees and Ellie Vaughan as Pixies Sprinkle and
Twinkle.
Rachael Ludlam as Dick and Bella Haycock
as Alice
Then there were the sailors, rats, townspeople,
and anyone else needed from the ensemble of Alice Abrahall, Shaun Todd,
Beth Flint, Lizzie Sanford, Jasmine Taha, and Katharine Williams and
members of the youth theatre which included Ellie Buckingham, Gracie
Chapman, Jon Peach, Gabriella Rathbone, Maddie Simpson, Eleanor Sprucc
and Lucy Tsang.
The stage had some splendid hired-in backdrop
cloths from Thoroughly Theatre Co on a set painted by Emily Beaton and
Sonya Jackson and the wardrobe team added some wonderful costumes to
take us back to somewhere around 1400 – you see Dick really existed and
was Lord Mayor three times between 1397 and 1420 . . . Oh yes he was!
The result is a lovely, family friendly panto
directed Emily Beaton, who has caught the directing bug since her debut
with Strictly Murder at the end of last year, and has done a
fine job of keeping the panto tradition alive..
And as for its added importance . . . the Hall
Green panto has become an annual pilgrimage for Brownie and Cub packs
around the area, almost a right of passage, and in these cash strapped
times for many youngsters it will be the first and perhaps only visit to
the theatre, and youngsters are where the next generation of theatre
goers, the bedrock and future of theatre itself will come from.
They cheered, booed, sang and even heckled their
way at the decibel level of a Jumbo Jet at take off from curtain up to
curtain down, caught up in the magic of theatre. The sea of
excited happy faces, beaming smiles and sparkling eyes at the end showed
Dick Whittington had more than delivered what it had promised on the tin
. . . To 13-12-25
Roger Clarke
05-12-25
|
