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I enjoy my January outings to the Wellesley Theatre in Wellington. This year’s pantomime group were presenting Hercules. It is always refreshing to come up with something different and new. This most certainly was.
If you were looking for an upbeat musical production with pantomime ingredients then this clearly was the show for you.
This group is renowned for having established principals, strong singers and a top orchestra. This year was no exception.
You had to follow the story carefully. It was good to have a synopsis for this pantomime as this helped me and the audience know exactly where we were heading.
I was drawn to your opening. The village of Kavos set the scene for this upbeat production. The only person to be missed was the late Frankie Howerd. Now that would have been a carry-on!
This was a resplendent show. All principals, dance troupe, junior company and ensemble held the production together with flair and all movements indicated total confidence.
This was however, a show with multiple dialects including, strangely, American. As a general rule, it is advisable for players to stay with their natural accents otherwise the vocal effect can appear inconsistent, undermining the flow of the dialogue.
No prompts were required on opening night, the cue bite was exceedingly good and lines were delivered assuredly.
Michael Coles Hercules was a very sound performance. You had clear diction – although a little hurried in places – and established an excellent rapport with us. An energetic character with a good singing voice too!
Jack Glanvilles Hades gave us another rock solid performance again this year. You held our attention at all times and gave us a very convincing Lord of the Underworld. I loved the laugh. Excellent.
The pantomime traditions were played by your comedy team consisting of the likeable Dame Ma Salata (Ian Jones), simple Zak Siki (Charlie Hughes) and comedy couple Lethal and Bizzle (Alice Luke and Steph Colman). Personally I would have like to have seen more visual fun moments from this troupe but you all worked well as a team. At one stage I thought we were heading towards Aladdin during Ma’s Laundry (maybe a ‘Mr Muscle’ gag could have been used here.) Even the lamp made an appearance!
What really kept the show alive for me were music and song. What a grand orchestra you have and an amazing trio of muses to compliment them. You gelled naturally together and had fine singing voices and stage presence.
Lost in your eyes sung by Meg (Hannah Deason-Barrow) was also another fine piece of theatre.
While, of course, it would have been impossible to incorporate all the traditional pantomime themes in a show like ‘Hercules’, it has to be said that this was a memorable production which should encourage Wellington Pantomime Group’ to go from strength to strength, so to speak!
Nigel Ford
Moderator SFD