Is this French visitor Louise’s first panto? Oh oui ça l’est!
“I DON’T know what I thought a pantomime would be like, but it wasn’t like this at all,” said Louise, as the curtain comes down for the interval.
Louise is French and had never been to a pantomime before so naturally, we thought that she would be the perfect companion as we took our seats at Derby Arena for this year’s production of Sleeping Beauty – the latest in a string of collaborations between Little Wolf Productions and Derby Live.
The show was meant to premiere last Christmas but was postponed due to the ongoing pandemic and with two years of anticipation, after a very successful run with Peter Pan in 2018, the stakes have been high to prove that “panto is back”.
Morgan Brind and Alan Bowles explained in the show’s programme: “When we began preparing to bring back pantomime we decided to do one thing: We were going to pull out all the stops.”
Well, we’re happy to report that this certainly was the case and Sleeping Beauty was definitely worth the wait.
Entering Derby Arena for Louise was quite surreal considering that the last time she was there was to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
Now, the venue has been transformed to a theatre.
For Louise, what also took her by surprise was the atmosphere. She said: “I don’t know why, but I didn’t realise that it would be so focused on children and so relaxed.
“We really don’t have anything like this in France, maybe a puppet show for children, but when you go to the theatre, you go to the theatre.”
The set design is stunning with so much attention to detail and lighting that you could probably look at it for hours; something Louise noticed too.
She said: “People always painted pantomimes as being kind of tacky and low budget but the stage and the costumes were really impressive.”
The show starts with Fairy Lights, the show’s narrator, played by Abigail Finley who is returning to a Little Wolf production after playing Marilyn the Mermaid in Peter Pan.
Speaking in rhyme with a Yorkshire accent, Finley is incredibly charming and her singing abilities steal the show.
Rita Simons and Roddy Peters form an endearing double act as the show’s villain, Carrabosse, and her servant Norman Ton.
Ex-eastender’s star, Simons (known for playing the ill-fated Roxy
Mitchell in the soap), seems very comfortable in the role of the baddy, having played the villain several times in other panto productions.
Richard Brinley returns to Derby Arena for the third time as Mervin the Magician and is perfect alongside the show’s writer and designer Morgan Brind who masterfully plays the show’s dame Nurse Nancy Nightly.
With theatres closed for more than a year and with all the chaos that you can expect from a pantomime, some things did not go as perfectly as we are sure the cast and crew wanted them to. However, Brind expertly rolled with the punches and managed to make forgetting an audience member’s name funnier than the original joke.
Howard Chadwick’s King Darren of Derbion is everything you want from a panto king and has fantastic chemistry with Finley, Brinley and Brind.
Sleeping Beauty is running until January 8, at Derby Arena. You can purchase tickets from the Derby Live website.
Princess Rose, aka Sleeping Beauty, is played by Sophia Lewis and makes a strong debut in Derby pantomime.
She performed excellently alongside Louise’s favourite character, Prince Vince, the romantic lead in the show played by Matthew Mori.
She said: “I really liked that he was kind of a wimp, I found that quite refreshing.
“I was really pleasantly surprised and I really had fun.
“It was really nice to have such a warm atmosphere and parents and kids were having the same amount of fun. You really can’t compare it to anything else,” Louise said.
“It really got me in a Christmassy mood. I am really looking forward to going again next year.”
We really don’t have anything like this in France, maybe a puppet show for children, but when you go to the theatre, you go to the theatre.
French panto novice, Louise