Snow White

Reviews

Consider yourself one of us, consider yourself one of the family, was the closing refrain of the latest Blackmore Players' performance and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a rendition of the musical Oliver. However, the posters around Blackmore Village Hall, where the play ran from 19 to 22 January, read Snow White. But this was no ordinary pantomime, it was one which Charles Dickens, author of Oliver and A Christmas Carol, would have been proud; a homemade variation of the traditional fairytale recipe. And the secret ingredient? Community spirit. After just 10 minutes of the opening night's performance, the us and them line, separating the cast and the crowd, had been blurred and the audience began to consider themselves one of the family. Having been introduced to Sarah Tayler, as the feisty yet floaty Snow White, and her friends at the palace, the audience encounter Push Up. Dressed as one of the 118 twins from the directory enquires advert, Mike Jeffreyes immediately had the audience doing Mexican waves and chest exercises. Whilst the traditional audience participation, the He's-behind-you's and the Oh-yes-it-is's are optional, this military fitness training was obligatory! But the audience didn't complain. In fact they were relishing it - and most of them were over 60! And making the opening night free for pensioners was just typical of the community-spiritedness of the Players. Joan Bassington, 81, and her husband Ken, 80, from the Roxwell Village Wednesday Club, commented: They bring you into it and make you feel part of it. We really enjoy that, we do. With the actors emerging from the audience, exiting through the audience and even dancing around the audience, it was impossible not to feel a part of the proceedings. Of the 33 characters, three stood out in the eyes of the audience: The mirror drew belly laughs from the crowd; many a response to the clever script, adapted from the original by Limelight Scripts in Sheffield. Bringing the character into the 21st century, Simon Haskell played the part of a computerised photo booth in a wheelchair, and was certainly not the mirror, mirror on the wall of yore. In one scene, he tried to escape from his handler, played by Gina Daldry, using his legs to shunt himself around the stage; reminiscent of Lou and Andy from TV's Little Britain. The second character - or collection of characters - to which the audience took a shine were a family of vultures. In intricate, feather-like costumes, stitched cleverly together cleverly by Margaret Boreham, they performed a barber shop quartet version of the Vultures' song in Disney's Jungle Book. Their Liverpudlian accents - a nod to John, Paul Ringo and George - melted into angelic harmonies as Irene Davis, Samantha Dunk, Simon Haskell and Mike Jefferyes performed a tricky score, accompanied by Shirley Parrott on the piano and Graham Brown on percussion. One fan, Sheila Hall, 77, from Tipps Cross, said: The vultures were good. I like their song and the words, adding: We have been coming for many years. It's always all good. Also popular with the audience were the seven dwarves and, as tradition dictates, they entered singing High ho, high ho. The irony was not lost on the audience as one of the little men played by Keith Goody was at least six feet tall, wearing a hat that boosted his height by another foot! To make his loftiness all the more obvious, the shortest of the dwarves - Titch - was played by 12-year-old Jenny Pavitt. This youngster is one to watch out for in the future, so clear was her delivery and so confident the command of this key role. The craftsmanship involved in the set design was most apparent when the dwarves were on stage. The scene inside the living room of their woodland cottage, for example, allowed the audience to see beyond their back window, into the forest, where the evil queen and her cronies, played ominously by Gail Hughes, Rosemarie Nelson and Linda Cearns, were lurking. In another cottage scene, the props were used to great comic effect; a row of seven personalised headboards with a row of 14 hobbit-like feet sticking of the bed sheets, were enjoyed by the audience. Such detailed sets and props required a fair bit of behind the curtain time to set up and, to buy time, several brief scenes took place either in front of the curtain or - more often than not - among and around the audience. During such scenes, the lighting was crucial and Tony Pavitt and Mick Chymuk were helped by young Alfie Gardner and did a sterling job of picking out the cast in the crowd. In his directoral debut, Barry Kirk, who has historically played the part of the dame in the Players' annual pantomime, controversially gave the role of this play's matron, to a woman! When make-up artist, Liane Brown realised she would no longer have apply the dame's foundation with a trowel, she must have thought she was in for an easy ride. However speedy and skilful application were required when the plot required Dame Senna Pod, played by Barbara Harrold, to appear on stage smothered in night cream and, just moments later, appear again, but this time, fully made-up. The storyline involved her having been magically summoned from her bed - and back again - by the wizardess, played by Tracy Slade, and assisted (off stage) by her puff-of-smoke and whizz-bang sound effects man, Andy Appleton. The pantomine was not completely devoid of traditional cross-dressing however, with Sharon Free, as Price Valiant, confidently taking the lead male role - all be it wearing very long boots and a very short tunic! With the women looking like women and the men looking like men (there was no doubting the sex of the King played by the dashing Andrew Raymond ) the far-fetched nature of a typical pantomine was somewhat softened. Although... there was one actor who hammed it up to the nine! Martin Herford, as the wood cutter, over-acted in his speech (which was filled with woe) his actions (he had a constant stoop) and his mannerisms (he coughed insatiably). In this play, however, it was deliberate, and the audience recognised him as an actor playing the part of an actor, determined to make the most of his first speaking part! The level of intimacy established, as a result of taking the audience into his confidence, was raised even further at the beginning of the second half: In turmoil about being tasked to kill Snow White, the woodcutter asks himself: What have I done? and so involved was one man in the audience that he answered the rhetorical question! The fact that the audience joined in at the wrong moments is an indication of the play's success. Even during the interval, as the MC called each raffle ticket number, folk started hollering: Oh no it isn't. With community spirit at its heart, credit must surely go to the Blackmore Players for making this play as much about what happens in the seats as about what happens on stage.

Carla Pickering