Author: Tessa Davies

It was a pleasure to be invited to review this pantomime on behalf of Ann Platten and we were warmly welcomed by the Front of House team.  Although I had not asked for specific seats, we were very impressed that we had been allocated seats in our favourite place in the auditorium.  The atmosphere was friendly, and we settled in to enjoy a traditional pantomim

Audience participation is a crucial part of pantomime and, sometimes, it can feel a bit forced.  This was not the case here as the cast warmed to their roles, the audience warmed with them.  Karen Davies (Fairy Kindheart) was delightful with a beautiful singing voice and she quickly got the audience involved in the action.  Jacqueline Walker was excellent as Buttons, she had a lovely cheekiness to the character which endeared her to us immediately.   Tony Carnell was good as Baron Hardup and he was joined by Jackie Fairweather as the wicked Stepmother.

Kerryalice Hartnett was a lovely Cinderella, she has a beautiful voice and it matched well with Jake Jackson’s portrayal as Prince Charming.   The two Stepsisters were terrific, Jade Eden (FiFi) and Justine Smith (FruFru) had the characters perfectly and were very entertaining throughout the show.   Sheila Bolton completed the Principal cast as Dandini, a lovely performance.   The remaining members of the cast worked well, although a few more smiles would have been nice!

Just a note about the narrator, played by Kathy Ellis.  I thought it was a very good idea to have a narrator to cover the scene changes; which, inevitably, are tricky in this small venue.  However, I would have liked to see her dialogue more scripted to match the show.  Unfortunately, she spent the majority of the time speaking to a very small part of the audience and her comments were, at times, a bit inappropriate.  I felt a little uncomfortable with them and there was a measure of fidgetiness in the audience which broke up the magic of the show.

I did feel that the first half was a bit too long, it lasted 1 hour & 15 minutes.  Although the second half was nearer to the optimum 45 minutes.  When you have a lot of children in the audience, it is important to consider the running times.   I would suggest that some of the songs could have been cut down in length. It is not always necessary to use the entre backing track of a song and I did notice a level of fidgeting!   If you are going to use the whole song then I would suggest that more movement is introduced during the singing, to hold the audience’s attention. 

The scenery was very effective and the use of square columns to depict the back drop was a very clever idea.  H.O.S.T.S have some talented scenery designers, builders and artists.  Costumes were, in the main, very good although I would have liked Cinderella’s ragged costume to have been a bit more flattering to her.  Her other costumes were beautiful.   All the other costumes worked well.  The lighting was good, and the sound was fine.

A delightful afternoon entertainment and my thanks again to the company for your warm welcome.