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….