Merry Christmas

As it comes to the end of another Too Friendly year I thought it a good time to look over some of the highlights and lowlights of 2009.

The year started off with some of the cast performing and working on All Soul’s biggest pantomime to date. Peter Pan (complete with flying) went down a storm with both the critics and the audience and, for me in particular, was such a great laugh to work on as it also marked my first time playing the Dame!

We then started work on Miles’s Tredinnick’s hilarious ‘It’s Now Or Never’… This was a difficult play to put together. The pace is frantic, the set complicated  and it’s quite wordy… but the results were fabulous! A real crowd pleaser, the show delivered jokes by the second and had audiences rolling in the aisles. Photos of us even made it to the authours website  - checkout the page for the play.

The second show of the season was an even bigger challenge. We performed two full plays on the same night. John Godber’s ‘Bouncers’ along with another of his plays, the classic ‘Shakers’. Each play is a four hander with either an all male or all female cast. Each play is set in and around the local cocktail and we wanted to make the staging something different. Therefore we converted the entire venue into ‘Shakers Nightclub’ complete with a dancing floor, disco lights,  smoke machines and a D.J. Once again the critics loved it, giving us one of our best reviews ever, and some great responses from the audiences too.

As ever the Murder Mysteries at the Royal Clifton did well. Each one selling out again and we will be doing even more of them in 2010.

Without any doubt the lowlight of the year was the loss of our great friend Tom Hancox. Tom was a member of the company for many years.  Initially backstage, he was  responsible for the lights and sound on many shows and latterly he started performing and even writing for us.

Tom was an amazing man. Full of life and verve and brimming with talent. He was an inspiration and friend. He will be sadly missed.

Tom, Mark and Alec take their bows

Looking forward to the new year some of us will be starting the new year in pantomime once again (… Oh Yes We Wil!l) as we perform in ‘Dick Whittington’. Then we start work on the next Murder Mystery and also start the preparation for the next big show Alan Acybourn’s ‘Time Of Your Life’. More details of which are coming soon.

A big thank you to all the people that have come to see the shows over this year and especially to those that have written in. We really could not have done it without you and we hope to see you in 2010.

Merry Christmas!

Snow White Panto Review

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
All Souls Dramatic Company

The All Souls annual pantomime is like a big family reunion party. The cast greeted the audience like old friends and everyone in the seats around me seemed to be related to someone on the stage. This made them all the keener to join in with the action, doubtless trying to incite their offspring to greater effort, and allowing their exuberance to almost outshine the hard-working cast.

And, like a Ken Dodd show, don’t expect an early exit as the cast seemed to be having such a good time, they didn’t want to leave.

Joanne Stafford shone as Snow White, her plaintive singing being well suited to numbers like Inside my heart and Someday my prince will come.

She wins the heart of Prince Alexi, played by Jaen Pierre Meyer, though one feels she could have done better for herself with one of the more rugged villagers.

This was Peter Roney’s seventh reprisal as the Dame, a part he has perfected over the years, although there was little suggestion of a woman inside his voluminous skirts. He’d make a much better stand-up comic than a drag artiste.

Cliff Gillies obviously enjoyed every minute of his part as Muddles, getting the audience to clap and sing along, as if they needed any encouragement. His version of The Brook Brothers’ Ain°’ gonna wash for a week was one of the few songs that was instantly recognisable, along with Thriller and Hi Ho Hi Ho.

Busiest performer was Katie Watkinson as Ramsbottom, the Wicked Queen’s henchman, who darted maniacally about the stage plotting the victory of Snow White. She will surely have run the equivalent of the London Marathon by the final performance. Katie also led a sixties girl group interpretation of Connie Francis’s Robot Man, accompanied by The Wicked Queen (the suitably evil Stephanie Verite) and Prince Alexi.

Sue Thomas could be dimly glimpsed through the Magic Mirror as the Spirit therein whilst June Weights was charming as Fairy Goodheart.

Most popular of all were the dwarfs and the dancers, a veritable army of children, whose costumes, singing and dance routines were a delight.

My only quibble was with the music. I would have much preferred real musicians rather than the synthesised backing tapes which lacked the spontaneity and showmanship of a live band.

This was a traditional pantomime with, thankfully, little smut and few of the political references that small children rarely appreciate. Karen Edge, who directed and choreographed, must be congratulated for putting together a show well up to the standard of All Souls.

Book your ticket now before they sell out.

Star Rating 3/5

Review by Ron Ellis