A quality festive family frolic
Rebecca Ryder, DIG Yorkshire
07 January 2010
The Carriageworks can always be trusted to get fully into the swing of panto season, with a variety of famous faces appearing annually in their family-friendly productions. Locals have this year been treated to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, starring Emmerdale's Jean Rogers as the Wicked Queen, CBBC's Jez Edwards as Muddles, comedian Peter John as the Dame, and newcomer Victoria Holborn as Snow White.
The children are always catered for in these productions, but this year they seemed to also be key to many of the comedic elements of the play. Several little youngsters amused as the seven dwarfs, complete with oversized knitted dwarfs heads. Their names had been tweaked for comedy value, and each had a little motif that was characteristic of their name, which they would perform whenever they spoke. Particularly funny were Posey and Rappy - you can imagine the traits they displayed at every opportunity, which never failed to get a laugh. The adorable little ballet dancing rabbit that followed Snow White around and always sniffed out trouble before she did, raised smiles throughout, and was a wonderful use of dramatic irony.
Jez Edwards was charming and full of beans in a way that only a CBBC presenter can be even when dealing with the perils of bringing children up from the audience to perform a spontaneous song and give them prizes. He carried the story through with a lot of audience interaction, despite not having the traditional main role as with Snow White and the Prince. Victoria Holborn played her part innocently and likeably, performing her songs beautifully, an impressive start to her career in entertainment.
Jean Rogers was graceful but typically evil as the Queen, making a great villain as she got all the children hissing and booing; then turned it around as she was transformed into a morally decent human being at the end and gained everyone's forgiveness.
Peter John made a brilliantly archetypal dame, complete with full on pouting and shameless flirting, plus frequent costume changes which grew more ridiculousy colorful and outlandish every time.
The highlight of the production was the performance of Something Else I'd Rather Be, which built its intensity and chaos throughout as the tempo grew faster and each of the male characters kept up their impressive routine of dodging eachother's weapons whilst performing their own version of the verse.
The Carriageworks can once again be applauded for putting on a quality festive family frolic, which can't have failed to leave even the dourest of Strooges in high spirits.
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