BRN January 2013 colour - Boxford Community Council

THE BDG ARE OFF THE HOOK. WHAT A PANTO!!!
Joe Barrett proved to be a barrel of laughs as the villainous Hook’s
shipmate, ‘Sweetheart’ whilst trying to keep everyone ship-shape and sea
worthy! Camping it up as only Joe can do, he set the scene that was going
to prove to be one of the best panto’s yet.
David Phillips as the aforementioned villainous ‘Capt Hook’ was born
or should I say ‘built’ for the part. Sporting a magnificent black beard and
in a resplendent captain’s uniform he must have presented a frightening
character for some of the younger members of the audience who attended
on Wednesdays first night, or was theirs an expurgated version??.
The Plot!!!! I have been having some problems actually working out
what the plot was. We did not have a Peter Pan or a Tinkerbell, these
being replaced by ‘Fairy Tail’, a rather larger and aged version of the
original fairy, played by Margaret Clapp who was word perfect with the
longest speech of the panto, and a somewhat older relative of Peter called
‘Marci Pan’ played by Coralie Marshall who mysteriously floated around
the crows nest without any wires!!
Well here goes. Sweetheart recruits a new crew for a short voyage. The
crew contains two thigh slapping principle boys, Charming Magoo
(Georgie Watson) and Hugh Pugh (Cheryl Johnson) Magoo is searching
for a magic necklace and if found the secret password will give you all
the riches you wish for. Eventually the necklace is found and the
villainous Hook grabs it and upon saying the secret password is instantly
gobbled up by Tic Tock the crocodile. Did I get that right Bill? sorry I
was enjoying myself too much to be able to follow it.
I still can not quite work out how the romance worked into the plot
resulting in the traditional last act marriage?
With a cast of thousands it is difficult to pick anyone out for special
praise so I won’t, except, Derek (I can’t remember my lines) Butler who
let me down by being word perfect,
A special word however for the musical direction. This was probably the
best yet but having only seen 17 panto’s I can not confirm it. Gareth Price
and Ward Baker did a brilliant job, almost as if Gareth Malone had been
in charge! and how could I possibly forget the great performance of
Hannah Murphy who played Crustation, one of the fish wives
As always a great feast during the interval prepared by the now famous
Di and Jan and their team.
Last but not least, Bill
Horne the author and one
half of the talented Horne
duo, who has come up
trumps once again,
Watch this space for the
new season of
Boxford Drama Group
productions.
Left Charming Magoo
and his (her) bride with
Sweetheart in the
background.
Right David Phillips as
Captain Hook.
Top Some of the cast in a
sing along.