Review

‘Once upon a Time’ , The Somborne Players

The Somborne Players again put on their annual Pantomime over the Spring Half Term. No floods this year, but plenty of new talent mixed in with regulars, resulted in a panto hugely enjoyed by four full audiences.

‘Once upon a Time’ was directed by Kerry and Duncan Natt (their first time). The work they must have put in to make the Panto work, must have been huge but it went brilliantly and there were no weak links in the cast of 24 including 12 children.

The main character is Evelyn, the evil witch, Queen of Pantoland, making it abundantly clear from the start, that she was the one to Boo and Hiss at! She knows that Snow White’s son, Prince Marvellous is to marry Cinderella’s daughter, Princess Lottie the next day, and if they marry, then she will be banished from Pantoland forever. So the wedding must be prevented.

Sarah Litton (Evelyn) has been in previous plays, but never a Pantomime. She took to the part of the witch Queen extremely well, portraying a chic very evil and clever witch. She was nicely accompanied by Lil’ Eve (played by her daughter Nell).

After a very well-choreographed display by eight of the young (Thanks to Platform School of Dancing), we find Cinderella (Lesley Evans) and her Prince Charming (David Haydon) at loggerheads with Snow White (newcomer Ellie Monger) and her Prince Charming (Andrew Flanagan). The two couples incessantly jibe at each other, and cannot resist jokes about glass slippers, midnight, poisoned apples and dwarves etc.. Red roses have been ordered by Cinderella, whilst Snow White wanted white lilies. All four acted well together and amused us all through the Panto – especially a few scenes later on, when the 24 bottles of red need to be thrown away (as it should have been white wine), and both Prince Charmings get deliciously drunk as they taste the red wine, just to check it is OK. They describe it very cleverly, ending up in a drunken heap together!

Nick (Peter Grace) and Nack (Pollyann Monk) are the slapstick duo who help Princess Lottie (Catherine Cartwright). Nick and Nack have a routine which ends with a Paddy Whack, when they hit each other. The wicked Evelyn arrives and having temporarily frozen Nick and Nack, she puts a curse on Princess Lottie, and whisks all three of them to the far edge of Pantoland expecting them never to try and return alive.

All good panto stuff! But suddenly from the back of the audience, Prince Marvellous’s Cook, Gertie the Dame enters and everything moves up a gear. Mark Bradley as the Dame, completely goes over the Top. Loud voiced, he repeatedly asks audience to get him to sing. What comes out each time is a ghastly falsetto scream! ‘She’ has had 4 husbands and she is looking for a fifth. She eyes the audience but really wants Jack who wisely never shows any interest! Gertie gets extra laughs by asking the prompter (Linda Aucock) for his lines. The audience warms to him!

Prince Marvellous (Vanessa McClenaghan) along with Jack (Rory McClenaghan) and Gertie are discovered by Evelyn. The Prince finds out that his Lottie has been sent to the edge of Pantoland, so he gets his team to go and look for her. Evelyn was not expecting this, so organises some more deadly deeds.

We next see 7 small dwarves (including Sue Jackson) trying to get a huge diamond out of a quarry. With the extra help of Princess Lottie’s team, the diamond comes out with all falling over backwards. The dwarves give the huge shiny diamond to Princess Lottie.

Prince Marvellous, Jack and Gertie have tea with Alice (Helen Cartwright), the Mad Hatter (Friso Grace), the March Hare (Amy Ball) and the Dormouse (Sophie McLoughin). It finishes with boxes of tea being handed out, and finishing with Gertie being given a packet of STUPIDI – TEA. Then there is a free for all, with plates of foamy ‘cake’ in everybody’s faces. Jack announces it is the Interval, whilst they clean themselves up!

Captain Hook (well acted by Sue Spurling) along with loads of children as pirates, capture Prince Marvellous, Jack and Gertie. They are clearly doomed to walk the plank and perish. The young pirates put on another well-choreographed piece, and the Prince/Jack/Gertie team nearly avoid the plank by taunting Captain Hook about Peter Pan. Captain Hook visibly shrinks at all the ‘Peter’ and ‘Pan’ references, but eventually marches them off to walk the plank.

Meantime, the Princess Lottie team struggling through the jungle, meet Little Red Riding Hood who is trying to escape from a vicious wolf (Samuel McLoughlin). Nick and Nack ask the audience to tell them if they see the wolf. The wolf is seen, and after a run-around, Nick and Nack do a splendid ‘Paddy Whack’ which instead of hitting each other, they whack the wolf and knock him out! So the Lottie group have survived, whereas clearly Evelyn had expected the wolf to kill them all.

It is clear Prince Marvellous, Jack and Gertie have all walked the plank and are floundering deep in imaginary water. They look as if they have drowned, but luckily they meet Ariel (Daisy Natt) a spirit, who says she has rescued many mariners. When they tell her they are looking for Princess Lottie, Ariel helps them out of the water and they continue their quest.

Evelyn realises all her plans to stop the wedding have gone awry, and so she has to stop it herself.

The next scene shows Princess Lottie, Nick and Nack making progress, but they are still lost and decide to tell jokes and sing songs as they go along. Then they are met by Evelyn. She paralyses Nick and Nack again, and prepares to use her wand again to zap Lottie. It looks as if it is going to be fatal for Lottie, but luckily she remembers (with much audience help) that they have the huge shiny diamond. This is held by Lottie, so that Evelyn’s terrible spell from her wand bounces straight back to her, and Evelyn dematerialises herself! Hurrah! So when Prince Marvellous and Princess Lottie soon do meet, the wedding is all set to go ahead.

At the Reception, we are all delighted to find that the two sets of parents agree a ‘deal’, so that they will no longer irritate each other with Snow White/ Cinderella jokes. Prince Marvellous and Princess Lottie quickly change into magnificent wedding apparel, and clearly Pantoland has won out and all is well again!

The Production Team and other helpers numbering over 30 people, all pulled their weight, and so provided a really good Pantomime, watched by a record audience.

Brian Orange