The latest
Ebor Players pantomime Snow White opened last night to a rousing
response from the mixed audience. Amateur dramatics this may be, but
right from the start this was a production that was as professional
as could be.
Local
audiences have come to expect strong performances from the lead
actors, and tonight was no exception. The Dame (David Rose) bustled
his way to centre stage and took command of the audience, but not
before the opening ensemble music and dance routine demonstrated that
the cast were out to enjoy themselves too.
Throughout the production
the Dame carried along the story - or lack of it - with gusto,
ad-libbing her way on and off the stage with aplomb. A solid music
hall comic duo with her foil Simple Simon (Tom Davis) developed, to
the delight of the audience young and old, as jokes and one-liners
whizzed around the newly named Massie Hall. Their slapstick kitchen
scene was well contrived with a well sustained radio gag, and even
the props behaved themselves!
As last year
the Principal Boy Prince Florian (Bobbie Parrish-Moreton) and
Principal Girl Snow White (Georgina Sykes) handled their song and
dance routines together really well, and the bad, the very bad, Queen
Catrina (Philippa Parish) sulked, pouted and was convincingly vain.
The third
pairing that took the eye was that of Reggie Rank (Lisa Thornton) and
Phineas File (Tracey Patrick), a couple of unlikely lads with strange
accents and a tendency to bling it. They obviously enjoyed their
parts and could yet challenge the comic leads for audience
appreciation.
There are two
choruses to the production, and the senior one came on and did their
bit and even got some lines of their own - well done all. The
junior chorus this year had seven new youngsters from the age of
seven, and they were very impressive with their confidence from the
outset. Their delightful performances, particularly at the beginning
of Act 2, got a rousing audience response. There will be some proud
families in Bish this week!
Oh, and the
dwarfs? They took a while to appear, but did so with fun in their
approach and they looked right too. Hi ho silver mining was a great
song for them. The minor parts too came on and provided the threads
to keep the story going.
In fact the
music throughout was exemplary, with a blend of new and older songs,
and some very good snippets of classical themes that set the tone
well as scenes started. With even better costumes supplied by Dress
Circle in Haxby, excellent scenery, and good lighting and sound
effects, the production values were far in advance of what might be
expected in a village hall.
This was a
first night outing with an audience, and although the action cracked
along at a fair pace this will probably adapt to audience reaction,
and introduce a bit more light and shade into the plot. Towards the
end, the sinister apple and its outcome seemed a bit light and a bit
rushed.
Tim Bruce as
Director and Chris Higgins as Choreographer are once more to be
congratulated on staging such a bold production in limited
surroundings. If you have a ticket and can't go, I suggest you would
get a very good price on Ebay for it as anyone would be foolish to
give this panto a miss.
Copyright
Martin P Dudley
Update
You can see an extensive photo gallery of the production here.
