ARTS
Theatre
Jolly good show
Christopher Edwards
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (Duchess)
In the Christmas issue I recommended, sight unseen, the Players' Theatre annual pantomime. This was on the basis of the high standards they and Reginald Woolley (director and designer) have always, in the past, brought to their seasonal show. In fact, this is one of their best productions for years. If pantomime you must have, then here is a real antidote to the slap- stick, telly-joke concoctions you find on offer everywhere else.
The sub-title and credits give you a flavour of the style and tone of the evening ... 'An Original, Grand, Comic, Roman- tic, Operatic, Melo-Dramatic Fairy Extra- vaganza in Three Parts by J. R. Planche (1840), Miss Susan Graham Smith and Mr Geoffrey Brawn will preside at the Grand Pianoforte'. A touch of self-consciousness in its evocation of Victorian burlesque theatre? Certainly, although with an ele- ment of tongue-in-cheek aimed (not unsuc-
cessfully) at creating a degree of mis- chievous sophistication. But the Players' Theatre have been doing it for years, immune or at least ignored by fashion. They have always gone their own way. And the evocation is authentic — this year in particular, when virtually the whole of the text is pure Planche.
The other staple ingredients are charm, innocence and a high level of musical execution. The musical arrangements by Geoffrey Brawn are a skilful blend of Donizetti, Rossini, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Gay, Weber, Arne and traditional airs. The story is told in a combination of couplets (complete with good/bad groan puns) and musical numbers. It is the latter which contain most of the evening's wit and charm, for instance the vigorous Rossini-pastiche duet between wand- wielding good and evil in the forms of the Fairy Antidota (Janet Evans) and the Fairy Baneful (Catherine McCord). Both are accomplished performers, especially Catherine McCord, who laces a powerful singing personality with lashings of over- the-top scowling Scotch spleen.
The Fairy Baneful (Catherine McCord) and her Familiar (John Rutland) in the Players' Theatre traditional pantomime. Another high point of the production, which had the audience calling for an encore, was the Woodcutters' song im- mediately before Prince Perfect (Christ- opher Snell) penetrates the Magic Forest to wake Princess Is-A-Belle (Dorcas Mor- gan) with a kiss. Sticking just this side of merciless send-up, the Prince's song re- ceives a hilarious choric commentary from the rustic simpletons. The production lasts a couple of hours, there are two intervals and drinks at the Duchess are remarkably cheap (they can also be taken to your seat). On the night I went a full house was split roughly 50/50 between children and adults, a persuasive reminder of how popular this kind of entertainment can be.
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