Dick Whittington – Jubilee Centre, 12 – 16 Feb 08
Review by Becky Green
Dick Whittington was the pantomime this year that the Bunbury Players chose to perform written ably by Bobby Mather and directed by Lesley Morley. Having had his hand in the writing pot last year, Bobby decided to give it another go and came up trumps with a delightful script! There were some great jokes, a good story line (that included an excellent tap dancing cow), lots of pace and plenty of culinary surprises for all the family. This also included some colourful costumes, fantastic dancing and a great selection of music (oh, and a surprise in the interval when the firemen turned up). I was unsure if this had something to do with the smoke machine or whether the firemen had some unrehearsed walk-on parts – either way, it was the biggest surprise for me for the evening!
Gareth Lloyd (Jack) had the audience eating out of his hand with his loveable character even if the programme said “idle and stupid”! Darren Hitchings (Silly Sally) was, as always, very comfortable in his dame role – he owned the stage and his talent shines more each time I see him – oh and excellent costumes as well! Darren Mather (King Rat) was scary with his green hair and green hands - he relished in his character and the more boos he got, the more he reacted to the audience in a powerful way. Hannah Strathern (Dick Whittington) was convincing in her character and sang well. The children and chorus members were well rehearsed and seemed to be enjoying watching the main characters on stage. In fact, all of the cast members were convincing in the roles they were given which made up a delightful pantomime.
Some dialogue was unfortunately lost between characters when they turned sideways to the audience and some characters were louder than others but this is to be expected in a group of local people. From a personal point of view, the stars of the show were the dancers from Kimberley Ann’s Theatre School. They were a delight to watch as dancers and as rats - they never once faltered from their characters and owned the stage at all times. The musical numbers were well in keeping with the pantomime and I was particularly impressed with the amount of hard work that had gone into the scenery and props – including King Rat’s toilet chamber! Lesley Morley and all cast and crew should be very proud. Well done and I very much look forward to Allo Allo and Annie in the coming months.
Becky Green