Sleeping Beauty
Level 3 Performing Arts
GIFHE
Grimsby
7 December 2022
Its that time of year again, when panto season sweeps the land. Men dress as women, women dress as men, and fairytales come to life in an explosion of colour, song and dance. This year's offering from Grimsby Institute is no exception. Review Culture was invited to witness the premiere performance, in front of two local primary schools. The theatre was packed and everyone was having a great time. After a couple of years where many were deprived of the chance to see a panto live on stage due to COVID, this was a new experience for many children present today.
This was the story of Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty of the title, brought to life by Beth Smart, a performer with a lovely stage presence and a good singing voice. She gave Aurora a grace and regal poise and with her long hair looked like the fairytale princess you would expect. Her tale is an easy one. She is cursed at birth by the the evil Carabosse just as her fairy godmothers are bestowing gifts upon her. She is doomed to die from a single needle prick at the age of 18, but thanks to the swift intervention of a fairy godmother, she merely falls into a hundred-year-long sleep and can only be awoken by a kiss from her true love.
No panto is complete without three things. It must have a great Dame - and Charlie Shaw throws himself into the role with pure joy and abandon. His colourful wardrobe only upstaged by his array of wigs. At times he reminded me somehow of Daniel Radcliffe as a panto dame. His audience LOVED him. His silliness and his slapstick humour set the primary kids into fits of giggles and he looked as if he was made to tread the boards in this way.
The second thing it has to have is a principal boy and in this production the butler Billy was played by Beth Frost. Many of the comedy moments fall upon Billy the Butler in this panto and Beth played them all with relish. She was clearly having a great time and the kids loved seeing her being daft and yet always having fun. The mallet gag went down really well with the mini monsters watching the show!
The third thing that a panto requires is a strong villain and Stacie Bryan provided us with exactly that. As the green-hued Carabosse, she made the stage her own and wound up the hissing and booing audience as she swung her cape with abandon and growed at the children present at the matinee show today! She is a powerful presence on stage, most definitely.
There were several main parts taken on by the second year Level Three students, and all are clearly enjoying the opportunity to perform to an audience at this fine theatre, which is a hidden gem within the town and really shoud be promoted more widely. We saw Sunny-Jo Nicol as King Norbert giving her all and leading many of the silly escapades, particularly the formation of an army consisting of the Dame, the butler and the cat to protect the castle. The audience were laughing like drains around me as the crew lined up with spatulas, spoons and feather dusters to fight the enemy.
This production's charming Prince was named Orlando, and played by Goda Buzinskaja who sang, danced and romanced Princess Aurora. Technically, Goda played two roles as Orlando and Orlando's great-great-great-grandson - also named Orlando a hundred years later, looking and dressing exactly as his ancestor had a century earlier - though that joke was acknowledged within the script produced by the students themselves.
I was especially impressed by the make-up on the two cats in the cats. Both performers were feline, agile and amazing dancers. Fighting alonside the goodies was Kitty played by Ebony Dodds and as Carabosse's hench-cat, Spindleshanks, was Kaydee Lewis. Ebony as the almost always silent onlooker was a joy to watch as she danced. Clearly, they are both extremely flexible but when Kaydee's Spindleshanks lifted her leg up to her head and held it there while balancing on one leg, I was in awe. It fascinated me how each performer gave such different interpretations of their cat characters, and yet never dropped the animal characteristics. They were definite highlights for me.
The last group of featured performers were the fairies played by Paige Fanthorpe as leader Fairy Peaceful, along with Jack Yeoman, Charlotte Horsfall and Caitlin Bryant. Paige had a particularly strong vocal and sang a reinterpretation of Master of the House from Les Miserables. She shone confidently, whenever she had her moment in the spotlight.
The ensemble also featured as the Dance Captain - Loren Allen, with Chorus/Dancers from Year 2 in Charlie Connolly, Sophie Hicks, Poppy Lowe, Megan Carson, Hollie Lyall. Year 1 supplied Caitlin Brown, Elise Ames, Connor Mitchell, Owen Brown, Angel Louise Woodhouse, Kaia Thornalley, Lucy Curtis, Evie Lancaster, Precious Stewart-Coates. Assistant Director was Emilia Evison and the show's backstage support was Oliver Strong. Everyone smiled, sang, and danced with great enthusiasm throughout - like the perfect panto ensemble should. And the schoolkids loved every second of it.
That brings me back to my final comment, this was a perfect offering for the children today. One little girl was chuffed to bits because a performer had blown a kiss from the stage and she was heard exclaiming that it was for her because she laughed and smiled and clapped so often throughout. It absolutely made her day. These primary children will be the next generation of performers and it is so important that companies cater for them and show them that theatre is not necessarily just a highbrow past time, but that it is for them as much as it is for the opera and ballet lovers out there.
Thank you to Gemma Dodds, the show's facilitator for inviting me to see today's show. Keep up the good work!
Andy Evans 07 December 2022
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