Act Reviews 2024 / 2025 Season

that her character went through, innocence, hope, fright and sadness with conviction. I have to say that I could have watched a full half hour of Rickay the Rat, a puppet from the No Eyed Theatre Company, and operated by Joe Bradbury. The look of this puppet that popped up from a dustbin and washing machine from time to time was just so engaging. The voice had been pre-recorded by Tom “Syndicate” Cassell: it had expression and the little giggle was quite infectious. The timings when interacting with others was pretty much spot on. This was so much more than a cameo performance. Talking of cameo parts, Jack Evans, as Lord Sheen, delivered his dialogue with confidence. The running gag from Jemma Pattison, as the silent, slow shuffling Margaret Jones worked well and gave the audience something to look for in the background. It was very reminiscent of Mrs Overall, the Julie Walters maid in the “Two Soups” sketch. Pantomimes are a mixture of performance with dialogue, songs and dance. The songs chosen were very upbeat and quite familiar to many in the audience, from camp STEPS tunes to ones from musicals such as Hamilton and Six. The use of the opening number from the latter was an excellent and surprising start to the pantomime, it featured six characters that would take part in the following story and be used at times to fill in a scene change. Cecelia Hashmi (Fairy Liquid), Melissa Mottershead (Red Riding Hood), Erin Bradbury (Goldilocks), Jem Marshall-Ayre (Puss in Boots), Andrew Grogan (Pinocchio) and LilySue Thomas (Gingerbread Man) rocked out the origins of the storyline. The dance routine was stylised and shaped well.

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