Sleeping Beauty

We had a tremendously fun evening with the CADOS family and were thoroughly entertained by their production of Sleeping Beauty.  It was a terrific fairy story wrapped up in a Panto. A genuinely funny script had been chosen and adapted to suit this cast and company. It was full of clever, witty jokes that were better than the often-seen Christmas cracker ones and the story line pulled the show along. 

The set was wonderfully painted in fairytale land design and was also very versatile with quick changes possible by using the mobile flats. The scene changes were slick on the last night that we came, with well drilled cast and crew in a tight performing area.

There were so many excellent ideas in this show. The school scene was very funny with pacy banter amongst the cast. The local references were nice touches, although Highams Park came in for a rough ride! The Stayin Alive CPR actions for Rose made for a laugh in a dramatic moment. Isn’t She Lovely was a good ensemble number with harmonica ‘solo’ was really funny. Celebration was a joyous opening number and got the audience jigging in their seats. We were introduced to the villagers, fairies and courtiers, all happy to be together. The 21st birthday party scene had a great routine with I Wanna Dance with Somebody.  The steps were ones that everyone could manage and all kept together to produce an exciting, fun number. Sweet Dreams I really liked, especially the yawning chorus moments. One of my favourite scenes of the show was the UV monsters being defeated by Prince Alexander’s light sabre, it was brilliant. The bat, skull, eagle and others were cleverly manoeuvred by the blacked out operators and the scene was very well designed and delivered.The song sheet with everyone joining in together made a change from the ordinary ‘left side versus right side’ competition. Everyone knew the Abba song and could join in, another nice change. The walk down looked fabulous with costume changes and the Nurses in their finest. The finale ‘Life’s a Happy Song’ was so appropriate.I read that the choice of songs was largely down to the cast which was a good inclusive approach and gave everyone a chance to contribute to the formation of the show. There were tremendous costumes on display. It must have been a huge task but the final effect and impact was worth all your efforts.

A great collection of props was gathered together. The numerous invitations, the cauldron ingredients, the pointed and sharp items all needed to be made and must have taken a lot of time and skilled work. The numerous sound effects added greatly to the show. We had mobile phone buttons, light sabres, nappy filling to mention a few. The combined design of sound and light was impressive for effects such as the Dr Who time travel, creaking of the gate, the school scene mastermind, the crescendo on Fairy Lilac’s It’s a kind of Magic, the ticking of the clock speeding up to midnight and spinning wheel. All these added much to the atmosphere of the production. The lighting change to blood red on the pricking of Rose’s finger was another dramatic detail. The joy and smiles on everyone’s faces as they gathered on the playing area at the end of the show to chat to friends and family was a glorious moment to witness. This was the end of a job well done, the culmination of months of work and the realisation of the power of teamwork. As we sang in our song, “We believe in Panto”. Well done on producing a creative show that told a traditional fairy tale in a pantomime form.

Paul Daynes, NODA Regional Representative