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Gosforth Panto Starts Christmas with
Bang
By Christine Robins
During the dates of 30 November and 3 December, if you
had been passing through Gosforth between the hours of 7pm and 11pm you
would have heard emanating from the market hall; some boisterous
shouting, some manic singing and a lot of laughter and that was just the
audience’s reaction to this year’s Gosforth Panto!
This year’s offering was Beauty and the Beast and it offered all that a
Panto is meant to. There was a lot of audience participation, (although
I think myself more sweets could have been given out!) there was a lot
of singing although some people could have done with some lessons and I
mean only the audience of course. There was also a lot of heckling which
of course is usually expected and encouraged during a Panto, although a
very young and outspoken scout from Millom got carried away in his
opinions throughout the evening and especially about the Beast and Belle
getting together and he had to be shushed in the end. We all thought it
was very funny.
All the cast were very talented and as one of the leads Caia van den
Elzen was pretty and very demure even when fighting off the overtures of
Mathew Harper who played Victor Van Dare, the oily snake who kept
repeatedly trying to blackmail Belle into going out with him, I think he
was a little too good in that role, if you get my meaning! The other
character that stood out for me although they were all very good was
Crouton played by Jamie O’Donnell, he like his character seemed very
confident and funny even with his adlibs about others forgetting their
lines and I am sure he is a ‘character’ in real life too. The werewolves
were all very frightening in a cute kind of way and the steps sisters
were very funny in an annoying funny way!
The night was over by 11pm and it really was a very entertaining and
enjoyable one, even though I did have to sing, well actually I mimed as
I really don’t know the words to Ging Gang Goolley…whatever it is!! When
we all left everyone was saying how they loved it and for me it really
started off the Christmas season with a bang! Well done to everyone
involved including all the actors and crew who put their spare time and
effort into putting on this extravaganza, including the Director, Peter
Tyler and Musical Director Marieke van Bussel. There are a lot of
talented people in this area and look I did a whole Panto article
without doing any of the jokes ….Oh yes I did….
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