press
reviews of dick whittington 2008
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How do you stage a traditional pantomime for youngsters accustomed to the visual trickeries and CGI of modern cinema and television? Hornchurch’s resident company cut to the chase… provides an interesting solution. It’s very much design-based and has some intriguing ways of involving the audience that are more than the usual catch-phrase exchanges with the comic characters. When the story begins, we’re already in London, outside Alderman Fitzwarren’s somewhat stock-poor shop (there are lots of quick-fire and topical asides about the City in particular and the recession in general). The period is post-Restoration but pre-Fire. Costume colours are well co-ordinated – with some rather attractive bright blue – and our young hero is an Essex lad. From Hornchurch, naturally. His cat is a black-and-white bruiser of a mouser, more than willing to take on all comers. Tommy gives Sam Kordbacheh the opportunity to dance, leap and slink around onstage but also to ingratiate himself with the audience close up. The wide central aisle which crosses the auditorium parallel to the stage comes into its own as rats run along its rail and various characters pursue, flee, sail or fight each other. When the audience is so close to the players, then costume and makeup details matter. Mark Walters doesn’t let us down. Fairy Bowbells (a proper lilac fairy with a touch of Essex accent and a nice line in Cockney rhyming slang) is Laura Penneycard. King Rat (all black, green and bluebottle glitter) materialising opposite her in a spate of ferocious couplets is Shaun Hennessy. They take their traditional stations stage right and left for their main exchanges, each in a railed alcove suggestive of a fairy-tale book illustration. Lindsay Ashworth’s Dick is a tall slim principal boy with a no-nonsense approach to life’s ups and downs, much given to thigh slapping, and never letting the instant attraction to Michelle Long’s Alice seem mawkish or inappropriate. Simon Jessop makes Idle Jack an engaging sort of fellow, true son to Chris MacDonnell’s Sarah, a Dame with bounce as well as bounce-back. Marcus Webb gives proper personality to Fitzwarren; he’s not just a stooge or fall-guy and sings well, as do all the others in the cast. The script is by Nicholas Pegg, the director is Bob Carlton and the small band is under the musical direction of Carol Sloman, who also wrote the lyrics and arranged the music. The story moves along briskly with a pretty transformation scene as Dick dreams on Highgate Hill and an extremely clever underwater sequence in the second half after the shipwreck. I shan’t give away what this is – you’ll have to find out for yourself – but it works splendidly. |
WHAT'S
ON STAGE 
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There’s ornate pseudo Pugin decoration for Mark Walters’ sparkling panto sets and glittering costumes in Bob Carlton’s not a second wasted production - plus 3D, the latest panto must-have special effect. With our cardboard spectacles, we’re back in fifties cinemas again, irresistibly ducking and shrieking as objects and people fly towards us. Rats are everywhere - flying from rafters, running along seating and all over the Fitzwarren shop. Simon Jessop’s endearing Frank Spencer-style Idle Jack has plenty of energy. Chris MacDonnell’s Sarah the Cook specialises in corny jokes, wearing increasingly eye-watering costumes including a nautical extravaganza. Marcus Webb’s Alderman is refreshingly different and Sam Kordbacheh is athletic cat Tommy. Shaun Hennessey is tango-dancing, greenly glittering King Rat, Kylie lookalike Michelle Long is a sweet Alice and Laura Penneycard is a shining Cockney Fairy. Lindsay Ashworth is the upmarket Whittington from the better end of Hornchurch. Original music and lyrics are in Carol Sloman’s safe hands, lighting is by Matthew Eagland, choreography by Liz Marsh. Sound by Ed Clarke was left a bit high on first night following schools’ performances. Writer Nicholas Pegg and Carlton don’t waste a moment on unnecessary routines so this cheerfully entertaining show with loads of audience participation really hits the panto spot. |
THE
STAGE |
Dick’s big night had me caterwauling with delight WHEN Dick Whittington sets off in search of roads paved with gold, it’s unlikely the plucky lad from Hornchurch had ever heard of the credit crunch. Luckily, the producers of this year’s famous panto at the Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch had, and there’re plenty of witty gags about the crunch to keep the audience in stitches. But it wasn’t just the sharp and topical one-liners that had the audience at Dick Whittington whooping. The play’s inventive costumes (the dame’s nautical dress is particularly eye-popping), from Mark Walter, catchy music from Carol Sloman, clever audience engagement and even a 3D scene, made sure this was no tired old panto routine. The play opens
in a cobblestoned pre-industrial revolution London, outside Alderman
Fitzwarren’s sparse and rat-infested shop. He’s
accompanied by his faithful cat Tommy, played by Sam Kordbacheh,
whose mouse-hunting is slinky and seductively feline. Sarah the Cook, played by Chris MacDonnell, delivers many of the play’s memorable one-liners. Nothing, including Woolworths, Icelandic banks, or Mayor Boris, is safe from her satirical tongue. Youngsters were also thrilled to hiss at the villainous King Rat, who plots to turn the gang against Dick. But the tale takes a twist as they set sail for a new exciting kingdom only to be shipwrecked. The panto, written by Nicholas Pegg, and directed by Bob Carlton, rounds off the tenth anniversary year for the Queen’s resident company of actor-musicians cut to the chase… and judging by the amount of squealing from the youngsters in the audience and hearty laughter coming from their parents, its latest production really is the cat’s whiskers. |
ROMFORD
RECORDER|
Miles of smiles as cast and cat let hair down OK SO I am a big kid, I am the first to admit it, and pantomime is the start of Christmas with all the bells and whistles thrown in for good measure. Having got the ‘Pantomime Anonymous’ confession out of the way, the run up to Christmas started with a big bang in Hornchurch on Monday, as the Queen’s Theatre rolled out another piece of mistletoe and holly to get the adrenaline running for the next month. I took my three granddaughters, Ashleigh, Victoria and Rebecca to the theatre for Dick Whittington, the theatre’s annual fell-good experience. Watching them yelling ‘behind you’, ‘oh yes it is’, singing a ridiculous song and giving King Rat high volume verbals, their eyes were alight and faces wreathed in smiles. It mattered not that Dame Sarah had to shave every morning and wore a mixed set of clothes you would have trouble finding in a charity shop summer sale, or that the principal boy was an attractive woman who sang soppy love songs to another attractive woman, it was wall-to-wall fun. Written by Nicholas Pegg and directed by Artistic Director Bob Carlton, Dick Whittington had all you needed too sit back and be thoroughly entertained. A really stunning set created by Mark Walters was sheer quality and enhanced by Aimee Easter in the wardrobe department captured the magic for young and old eyes alike. The costumes were superb, and even Sarah the Cook’s totally outrageous creations looked as if they could have been built at a naval dockyard. I often wonder if pantomime is like taking off a tight corset for an actor. Taking it off must be an enormous relief, but being serious actors I happen to know the effort they put into every aspect of their art to make the difficult seem easy. Simon Jessop as Idle Jack and Chris MacDonnell as Sarah the Cook are both past masters. Chris has a wicked sense of humour and helped along by the script, grabbed every opportunity for a laugh. Simon also, taking hold of the audience in the first couple of minutes and holding them for the full two hours with responses that maintained the volume and enthusiasm of the youngsters. Both guys are good to watch in whatever they do, but seeing them really let their hair down was worth the bus ride alone. Shaun Hennessy was a remarkable King Rat, who worked the boos and hisses. He actually got a lot of sympathy amid the boos, no mean feat for someone coloured green. The hero, Dick was played by Lindsay Ashworth. A relative newcomer to the Queen’s, and this was a complete departure from what we have seen so far. In her other roles, Lindsay has been commanding, and as ‘principal boy’, she held your attention with a superb singing voice and enough thigh-slapping to keep the dads happy. Other quality performances were given by Michelle Long as Alice Fitzwarren, Marcus Webb as her father, Alderman Fitzwarren and Laura Penneycard as Fairy Bowbells, however, the actor who convinced my youngest granddaughter, Rebecca, of his superstar status, was Sam Kordbacheh playing Tommy the Cat. Not easy to get accolades playing a furry animal, but Sam showed you did not need to speak to make a strong impression. |
BARKING
& DAGENHAM POST 
But
this was the icing on the cake as the cut to the chase…
company got into gear.|
Original take on Dick Whittington There’s always an agreeably warm, home-grown feel to panto at the Queen’s, Hornchurch, now in its 55th year of festive entertainment. There are no listless blokes from the telly with one-and-a-half eyes on their January tax bills, but instead hard-working members of the year-round actor-musician ensemble. Even more appealingly, catchy original songs by Carol Sloman — listen out particularly for The P P Perilous Sea — replace the customary reheated chart mush.
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EVENING
STANDARD 