Friday, January 23, at Wickhambrook Village Hall
Review by Derek Bish
WICKHAMBROOK Players tackled the last of the big name pantos yet to be performed by the village drama group.
Although Beauty And The Beast failed to live up to the high st
andard set by last year's adaption of The Three Bears, it's hard to not enjoy the charm of this carefully-produced village show.
One of the unique things about the players is that they take the plot and write their own panto (Colin Bird was the man with the pen this year), bring modern songs into it and incorporate their own twists and turns.
The young cast was led by the talented Kirsty Bromwich (Beauty) who grew into her role as the night went on and her confidence grew.
She was ably backed by a number of strong showings by youngsters Stuart Field and Wayne Parker (comedy duo Trump and Fluff), Alice Crisp (Golden Wizard and Tom Winklepin) and the fabulous Kerry Rogers (the evil Countess Excrutia).
Rogers played her character like an evil version of Phoebe from TV show Friends.
She calmly spoke her poetic lines but when one of the good guys got the upper hand on her she would suddenly fly into a Phoebe-esque tantrum.
Paul Thomas (Jolly Brewer) had all the enthusiasm of a children's TV presenter while it was up to Andrew Burton-Griffiths (panto dame Hermione Regina-Trump), along with Field and Parker, to provide the cheesy jokes.
Jo Stokes (The Beast) produced the best acting display of the night while the elves, the mice dancers, Kathryn Cordy (Fibber Fanny Fanshawe), Jade Kettle (Quilkin), Megan Priestley (Prince Darian) and Peter Buckley-Saxon (Finnegan) all added their talents to the show.
Buckley-Saxon was involved in the most hilarious scene of the night as a change of scenery was filled by him, Grace Rogers, James Dowsett and Rowland Bittleston acting out some fake adverts for comical products, including Plague Away (an anti-plague cream) and their own version of Cillit Bang (a mallet that stops people snoring and probably left Bittleston a very bruised actor at the end of it after receiving whacks from Rogers and Dowsett).
All in all this was an enjoyable night in Wickhambrook, added to by the fabulous tuck shop!
