In a land far, far away (on the stage at CAST in Doncaster) a panto was performed. With added tweaks and extras it tells the traditional tale of Sleeping Beauty, and it has bus-loads of kids bursting to shout, cheer, sing and laugh at every opportunity. It’s all there – the christening of the baby princess, the dastardly curse of the dastardly witch, a spinning wheel, a prick, a Prince, a good fairy, a hugely long sleep from 1493 to 1993 and a very happy ending. All is adorned with colourful costumes, the silvery glitter of Christmas-card-style sets, big song numbers, local dancers, some live music from the balcony, plus cream pies in faces, silly jokes and, of course, a robust, man-eating Dame in extravagant outfits who has her eye on Geoff in the front row.
Right from the start, the ‘ey up’ wonderful Yorkshire accent makes everyone feel at home, featuring many a ‘thee’ and ‘tha’ and a ‘na then’, while Princess Rose’s Yorkshire dad, King Derek of Doncaster (David Monteith) gets in more references to districts of Doncaster than anyone on Earth has had hot Yorkshire Puddings! Another firm panto tradition in Doncaster is the seamless integration of BSL sign language throughout the entire show. Princess Rose herself being deaf, the signing and signers feature even more prominently in this year’s panto, with the audience proving dead eager to learn a few signs themselves, too. As the Princess, BSL poet and performer Zoe McWhinney is expressive, delicate and graceful even when bearing a sword or performing her feisty, choreographed BSL Fight Song, sung aloud by Fairy Reytgood, while her romance with her Hero Prince is quite touching, especially as he’s really just Rotherham Prince, the gardener, played and sung by Tarek Slater.
While the aforementioned Fairy Reytgood is a right good, right Yorkshire fairy, played assertive, funny, warm and sympathetic by Cathy Breeze, her helpful/hindering Pixies in blue frills, glitter and fine, big, sparkly boots are both signers with significant roles, whose presence and charming performance also beguile the audience. Meanwhile, making her own stage presence particularly robust is Joanne Heywood, full of cackling, sizzling sensuousness as the horribly wicked witch, Vanity Vainglory. Venomous in her splendid, sparkling costumes of Dracula red and black (and also briefly dubbed a Liz Truss in Leather) she’s so terribly evil she even threatens to take away Doncaster’s new City Status – and they’ve only had it a few weeks. Her big song numbers (like Sweet Dreams Are Made of This) go down a treat. Meanwhile Andy Cryer’s Dame Supernanny Fanny, Ninja of the Nappies, gets the crowd shouting loudly, appearing in bizarre outfits that range from Damely teapots, bagpipes, Donny Rovers’ football strip, Superwom-hen hen costume, and frocks full of Battenburgs with cherry-topped buns in strategic places.
Much experienced writer of pantos Andrew Pollard has penned some fine rhymes at times for this one, too, while the sing-along, reserved right for the end, couldn’t be simpler, boiling down Doncaster’s attractions, as it does, to tuneful, repeated mentions of a Donny Dome, a Wildlife Park and St Leger, St Leger. Simple but effective! Opportunities for audience participation, though, are fewer and shorter than in many recent shows: even the ‘it’s behind you!’ is very skimpy, while the slapstick and comic routines seem a little over cautious and would achieve a more natural flow of hilarity if everyone really relaxed, got right into it and let themselves go. There’s nothing too extreme, too scary, too horrid or too violent; nothing too risque or insulting, and even Donny the green, growing dragon isn’t non-PC enough to gobble up evil Verity Vainglory, who ends up coming over frighteningly nice, instead. All the same, the kids are thrilled to carry on laughing and enjoying themselves right through to the final, loud chorus of Wake Me Up Before You Go, Go. And then, with it actually being time to go, go – that’s what we all do.
Eileen Caiger Gray
The show runs until the end of December. For more information and tickets follow this link.
