| “Colour My World with Happiness”: Pantomime Returns |
Aberystwyth Pantomime |
| The Wardens- Mother Goose , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , January 12, 2023 |
The Ceredigion sky has been grey for the first five days of January. On January 6th, the day of Epiphany, Aberystwyth's Theatr Y Gwerin is true to its name. A company of forty-three is gathered- the same number again are backstage- in a parade of bright colour. The villagers of Aberisbrill (geddit) are dressed in primaries, brilliant yellows to the fore. They raise a glorious sound in song that is right for the time: “Oh, you can colour my world with sunshine yellow each day! Oh, you can colour my world with happiness all the way! Just take the green from the grass and the blue from the sky up above! And if you colour my world just paint it with your love!" It is a hypochromoscopic month- low in sighting of colour- and the Wardens' opening scene is a celebratory cheer for a glum time. The Wardens have been at this for a long time, since 1983 for pantomime, and the enforced absence, three years since 2020's “Peter Pan”, has given the ensemble an air of renewed uncapped fizz. The bubbling flavour of “Mother Goose” comes with several advantages. The first is that the leads have been performing together for many productions. Yoyo Barron as Jill made her Aberystwyth debut at the age of four. It is the third time for Nick Allen, fifth time for Jordan Ainslee-Rogers, the tenth for Alex Neil. The comedy-musical numbers exude a tightness and rapport that go beyond the latest rehearsal. In a rare reference to modernity two debt collectors are called Track and Trace. Nick Allen and Alex Neil give the hapless pair a harmony of blended physical comedy. Ioan Guile as Pickles has a role that includes song, dance, banging a bass drum and some dexterous wordplay. A lunch requires that a pheasant be plucked. The three-way scene with Richard Cheshire and Theresa Jones' Lady Lucre climbs a verbal staircase with many a hazard of mispronunciation. As the words speed up- pheasant, pleasant, peasant, pukka, plucker- the three manage to keep their consonants in the right, and polite, place. Carl Ryan is Demon Rotten Egg, a villain of sinuous movement in black, red and gold brocade. His antagonist is Julie McNicholls Vale's Fairy Hapus who casts her spells of goodness over the madcap plot with charm and warmth. Donna Clement Richards and Bob McIntyre feature late as Queen and King of Gooseland. Helena Jones is Priscilla the goose, two metres tall and with big beguiling eyes. The band, a tight six-some under musical director Elinor Powell, is the same grouping that played together in 2020. Llew Evans on guitar has hot-footed it back from “Peter Pan” in Croydon to be back with the Wardens in his native Aberystwyth. If there were to be a musical highlight the choice would be the transformation scene, beauty traded for the betrayal of friendship via the magic pool. The dancers- Alaw Medi Beechey, Tili Duggan, Miriam Lloyd Davies, Dharma ap Shem, Lucy Morgan-Williams, Naomi Thorogood- are re-costumed in silver. Tim Williams' bass and Alex Shad's driving drum-work underpin the fabulous wah-wah trumpet of Harvey Hassan. Thirdly the company has a first night audience who are up for whatever is required. The lights rise for Mother Goose, ever on the look-out for a romantic partner, to espy a candidate or two. “Yes, it's you, it's no good turning your head, it's you I'm looking at.” Late in the show the seven smelly socks and eight tatty rugs are thrown with gusto from stage to the top row and back again. 245 pantomimes are being performed this winter; the majority are the creation of four professional companies. The three theatres of Wales that were built in the same period, fifty years ago, all follow the pattern of home-written scripts. The rock-pantomime in Mold is written by Christian Patterson. In Milford the author is Peter Doran and in Aberystwyth Richard Cheshire returns to his triple author-director-actor role. His plotting customarily takes in journeying with a baroque turn. Act one of “Mother Goose” ends with Thunderbird One launching to the heavens. In the second act a return journey is necessary for which the Tardis usefully makes itself available. The large civic theatre productions often hire names that are well-known to enhance box office appeal. Aberystwyth is the opposite. Its companies present actors who are to become well-known names in a dozen or more years time. In the summer of 2022 three theatres in a row in London's West End had pictures of actors, now in their lower thirties, who were once school-children performing on the stage of Theatr y Gwerin. A late scene tells the story of the Ugly Duckling. The music is led by a stream of silvery tones from Louise Amery's piano. The scene is sung and danced by children who carry it off with huge aplomb. It is in part the accomplishment of choreographer Lorna Lowe, in part the culture of the Urdd that suffuses the lives of the young of Wales. One of these names may well join their predecessors as stage professionals in the 2030s. The performers are Eva Dumbril, Alex Longman, Alaw Jenkins, Steffan Jewell, Matthew Alderton, Lilah Smith, Alanna-Rae Morris, Ella Mair James, Annabelle Bran, Lois Davies, Lexie Rees, Nanw Griffiths-Jones, Caitlin Rees Roberts, Maddison Jones, Mali Lennon, Eiry Ann Merriman, Alaw Brooks, Elan Gwillim, Gwenno Elfyn Jones, Isla Johnson, Ellie Benjamin, Ariana Lloyd-Williams “Mother Goose” continues until 21st January with many performances sold out. Picture credit: myself |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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