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Cinderella – Phoebe Carroll
Prince – Emily Crellin
Buttons – Sam Harris
Salmonella – Gil Oliphant
Rubella – Pete Tincknell
Baron Hardup – Steve Collinson
Baroness Hardup – Sharon Harlow
Fairy Godmother – Rosie Winstone
Witch – Sarah Stott
Hairy Godfather 1 – Louise Cooper
Hairy Godfather 2 – Victoria Wakeling
Pantomime Horse – Katie Bowen, Ryan Cooper
Mini Rubella – Jack Carroll
Mini Salmonella – Sam Stone
Soldier 1 – Laura Sawkins
Soldier 2 – Ryan Cooper
Frogs/Dancers/Chorus
Katie Bowen, Tilly Bowen, Sophia Casey, Zac Johnstone-Nutting, Nina Jones, Beau Treasure, Lily Waterman, Phillipa Wood.
Back Stage – Ann Gouldney, Casey Crellin
Set Construction – Ted Jenkins, Lara Smith, Stewart Hilborne, Stephen Harrison
Lighting – Ted Jenkins
Special Effects – Mike Jones
Props – Gay Harrison
Make Up – Pam Griffin
Hair – Sarah Wakeling
Directing and Auditioning – Alistair Stewart
Box Office – Gill Tincknell
Wardrobe Assistant – Carol Hounsel
Children Chaperones – Sarah Stone, Fenella Jones, Vicky Green, Pam Griffin, Jo Waterman
Bar – Rachael Wood, Jane Watts, Kenny Lloyd
Front of House – Freya Jones
Photographs – Myrtle Pizzey, Ellie Johnstone-Nutting
Flyer Distribution – Leslie Smith
Fund Raising – Jane Watts
I am full of admiration for the people of Wookey, following their community panto. This is not a village with a long theatrical tradition, just a village with a crumbling village hall and a passion to fix it. “We had to do something about the hall and putting on a pantomime seemed like a good way to raise some money” said Wookey resident Polly Carroll, who directed the production.
“The most amazing people came out of the woodwork. This has really become a team effort. The whole village has come together to make this a real success,” she said. And success it was. For three nights the production played to a full house and such was demand for tickets that the dress rehearsal became an impromptu fourth night. Many longer established theatre groups would have been thankful for ticket sales on that level. Cinderella is one of our best-known British pantomimes, but Wookey short-story writer, Paula Williams, had given the tale a make-over.
It was the genuinely funny jokes that placed this production above the norm. Paula has a reputation for writing crime and romance and now she has one for writing funny pantomimes too. As with most local productions the cast was entirely from the area. Gil Oliphant, as the ugly sister, green haired Salmonella and Pete Tincknell as her pink-haired sister, Rubella, were especially amusing.
The scenes with the sisters, towering statuesquely over the diminutive, 13-year old Blue School student, Phoebe Carroll, as Cinderella, bordered were especially funny. Sam Harris as Buttons and Sarah Stott as the Wicked Witch were also well cast. Jane Casey’s costumes and Tony Pizzey’s sets were of professional standard. John Carroll’s score, with it’s adaptations of pop favourites from The Wurzels to Queen, to accompany the script, was unostentatiously clever and toe-tapping.
Congratulations to director Polly Carroll, producer Liz Bowen and to the large team involved. Professional theatre, sometimes forgets that audiences, young or old, have come out to be entertained. In Wookey, that we were in a drafty hall, with peeling paint was unimportant, because, as the lady in the audience next to me said, speaking for us all “I am having a really good time”.
