Wootton Country Players
Wootton Country Players
Wootton Country Players
“PUSS IN BOOTS”
Wootton Village Hall
Saturday December 13th
Director: Tina Kirkup
As I walked into the Village Hall I immediately felt very festive and ready for my first Pantomime of the year.
“Puss in Boots” is not one of the most well known stories, and gives flexibility to the director and cast to play around with the content. The show started off with a lively chorus number from some of the assembled cast. The set was colourful and certainly made the most of the performance area they had to work on. There was plenty of panto fun throughout, with the statutory slapstick, where some of the gunge narrowly missed me sitting in the front row, the ghost scene, and I particularly enjoyed the number when all the different characters sang against each other.
There were some very nice touches to the show with the younger dancers, and the use of the puppets in Princess Fiona’s opening song. Every member of the cast showed enthusiasm for their roles and they all worked together very well. It was certainly a family affair as I noted that four Kirkup children took roles in the show. Josh Kirkup gave a spirited performance as Muddles and he certainly had rapport with the audience. Emily Kirkup as Colin the principal boy played her role well, but I am not sure why she had a north country accent, however she entered well into the panto spirit, but I would have liked to have seen her groomed better, certainly not bare legged. Joyce Halpin and Graham Pavey as the King and Queen showed experience in their roles, but after a while the selfie joke started to wear thin. I enjoyed Allyson Cable’s performance as Fairy Fluster, warm, friendly and she can certainly sing well, as did Donna Gansbeuhler Settrey as Princess Fiona.
For me one if the highlights of the show was Alice Grandidge’s performance as Hemingway the Cat. Alice projected very well, showed a good level of self confidence and played the part with gusto. I also enjoyed the performances of Messrs Freeman, Hardy and Willis, who gave very endearing performances, so congratulations to Mason Mc Crae, and I presume, brothers Joel and Jamie Kirkup.
I did feel that the first half was too long 1 hour 15 minutes especially for younger children watching the panto.
Congratulations to Tina Kirkup for keeping the true tradition of Pantomime up, this was a family panto for the community and it is good that societies such as this one is, keep and encourage the younger talented members, hopefully for years to come.
Keith Pendall
NODA East Representative
District 2.
NODA review of Puss in Boots
19/12/2014