‘Dick Whittington’ is a classic pantomime story that is loved by many generations. The traditional story follows a young orphan, who travels to London to seek his fortune and in the end finds love as well as becoming the Lord Mayor of London three times. On his journey, he makes friends with a loyal cat. He also gets help from the fairy Bow Bella who prevents him from coming to any harm from the evil King Rat’s antics. Of course to be traditional a pantomime we have the good old dame, in the shape of Sherry Trifle and a silly boy who goes by the name of Idle Jack. 

 

St Cuthbert’s ADS of Darwen staged their version of the show with a large and varied cast. This included people of many ages in chorus, minor and principle roles. It was nice to see that they had given roles to some younger people, as this definitely helped to bring a different feel to the production.

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The use of UV light for one scene added an interesting and different style to a section of the show. Along with the brightly coloured sea creatures and fish also painted using UV paint. Although this has been used many times in many shows it still provides a very visual and captivating scene. As of most pantomimes, the song sheet managed to get the whole audience involved. Splitting the audience up and having them compete against each other is a tried and tested way for a great response. In addition to this characterisations were good from the cast throughout the show. They should all be commended on achieving the desired effect on the audience and helping to create light and shade in the performance. 

 

The ghost scare scene however did not really have its intended impact, this is possibly due to it being quite rushed towards the end so the audience were unable to acknowledge what had happened. On a whole the show was paced well and kept the audience interested. The run time was quite long, especially considering the younger age of some audience members and the cast.

 

The show allowed the cast to provide their own improvisation, as any good pantomime should. Allowing members to engage with the audience and many jokes were geared around certain people watching. This could have had half of the audience sat questioning what the jokes were about, not being familiar with the people involved. However even though they were aimed at specific people the jokes were generic enough to be appreciated by all. This along with the script meant there was something for everyone in the show, adults and children alike. Although this did result in a few missed lines and prompts being used but these were given discreetly and quietly. 

 

The technical side of the show was managed very well with simple and effective lighting design. Sets which used very nice back cloths helped to create an interesting show to watch. Many props were used throughout, these were varied and of good quality. The one thing which was a distraction however was the follow spots during the song sheet, one was being resized in time with the music almost creating a strobe effect. This was a distraction and made it very difficult to read the words. 

 

Overall the show was a good traditional pantomime which the audience were entertained by. The true community feel on and off stage that this production had was something special, which some other societies would not be able to achieve. The issues with lines were outweighed by the talent on stage and the laughs and participation from the audience showed how much of a good time everyone had. We look forward to seeing what the society produces in 2016.

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Author: Luke Taberer & Lloyd Bamber