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A very traditional pantomime drawing from a wide spectrum of stage activity. Mother Goose does not have the depth of story which others of the genre have, and with the rather weak script the talented cast had to work hard to bring it to life. The endemic current shortage of men in Amateur Theatre did not help and having just two male principals and one male in the chorus was an unfortunate draw back.
The story takes some time to develop with the various chief characters appearing, introducing themselves, and then departing, rather than being involved as the story develops right from the start. This made it difficult for Director Wendy Barr to inject and maintain the necessary pace into the proceedings.
The story opened in Fairyland with a short excerpt from the Sugar Plum Fairy, daintily danced by Michaela Morgan. This led us into the Fairy Queen's Court where Ro Mackinnon was an authoritative Queen, aided by her Chief Executive Heather Woodward. The latter is dispatched to earth to sort out Mother Goose and the other villagers. Dot Smytherman was the baddie witch, opposing and plotting against the other two. Her visage could have been a little more evil and she had to work hard to evoke the usual reactions from the audience.
The name part of Mother Goose was beautifully portrayed by Barbara Liddle in an ever more outrageous range of costumes. Barbara was completely in command of her part and did everything necessary to obliterate the usual conception of a male Dame. Gill Gordon-Williams successfully injected a lot of comedy into the part of her son, Billy Goose, whilst Charlie Lees played her delightful daughter Jill with much assurance. She was encouraged by having Catherine Whitehead (mum in real-life) playing the principal boy, Colin. Together they made
a very fair couple. Nigel Heath made a very good job of the wicked squire although he tended once or twice to recite his lines rather than act them. Kristina Mathieson and Robert Dicketts gave us more comedy as his two layabout assistants. One must not forget Priscilla who lays the golden eggs, (offstage in this production). She was heroically played by Annie Sutton in a large and most effective costume.
Music was supplied at the piano by Jane Spurr who nicely supported the many pleasant songs, aptly taken from various musicals to suit the development of the story.
We had some most beautifully painted scenery from Val Brinton and her assistants. It continually made smashing backdrops for the equally dazzling and effective costumes on view, to the great credit of Mary Berry and her team.
There was a lot of sound and special effects which enhanced the proceedings, as did the lighting.
The large audience gave the players a well-earned ovation at the end, having had perhaps a rather smaller chance of the expected participation than usual.
This was a pleasant and enjoyable evening with the talented cast slightly short-changed by the script.
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