Within walking distance of my house was an enchanted land surrounded by a Fairydale Forest and inhabited by many interesting Fairy tale folk, this was Sprowston Players annual Pantomime.

A first time outing for their two directors (Izzie Porter and Mary Carpenter) and judging by the noise being generated by the good sized audience in St Cuthberts Church they must have been very satisfied with the outcome.

As we venture into the village we are greeted by the villagers all singing their hearts out, how nice to see so many new members, only to be cut short by Mayor Humpty (Bryan Carpenter) telling us of the plight of the three little Pigs (Petunia – Abbi Clarke, Pablo – Kaia Riley and Porkus – Mary Carpenter). These pigs gave a crackling good performance as they each told us their part of the woe in the woods, strongly wolf related. They need not fear because saviour of all Pickworth (Ciarran Fallon), chopper in hand, comes to save the day. This was a strong, Gaston type, performance and well-acted, especially later in the show when his true self is revealed for all to see.

Red Riding Hood (Becca Grodentz) gave a strong performance as she acted and sang her way through the many traumas that lay ahead for her. Her first ordeal was to fight off the unwanted attentions of Pickworth so that she could marry her real love, Peter (Becky Harris Cook), who in true Panto tradition was too shy to ask.

When things start getting tough you can always ask a fairy to help and Fairy Rhoda (Corinna Laughton) was always on hand. Luckily she had several “Fairies in Training “ with her Rosehip (Alison Heasman), Buttercup (Eva Boston), Snowdrop (Cassie Cook), Trevor (Laura Cook) and Peony (Kaia Riley) and watching them practicing spell casting was enchanting.

Lurking in the woods, waiting to show himself is the villain of the piece The Wolf (Richard Potter). It was quite difficult to boo this very sophisticated and suave Wolf as he concocted his many plans to capture and eat Red Riding Hood but boo him we did. This was another strong performance from Richard and he looked as though he was enjoying every minute.

When an innocent young lady needs some advice she can always rely on a worldly wise auntie to do the job. Auntie Coco (Luke Fairweather) burst onto the stage with her booming voice and as you would expect gave no useful advice at all. Panto dames need to command the stage and this is exactly what Luke did and had the audience with him throughout. In Coco’s boutique we meet Flatula (Mark Chapman) and Repella (Dean Akrill) possibly the two worst shop assistants in the world, with extremely direct customer service skills. The outrageous costumes only added to the humour that these two brought to the show. Working alongside Coco we have Goldilocks (Alison Heasman), Rapunzel (Lyra Gregory) and Arrabella (Maisie Double Cook) who despite Flatula and Repella made the boutique a better place as they sang and danced well.

If you do not know what happens next I will try to help. Red goes off to the forest to see Granny (Carol Rowell) who is not well. She is accompanied by Pickworth and the Wolf disguised as a policeman. Wolf scares off Pickworth and turns him into a quivering wreck, scares off Granny and takes her place. Big eyes, big claws, big teeth wolf chases Red. He does not catch her as Peter captures him and saves her. Asks her to marry him, all live happily ever after.

This was a good community theatre Panto and so great to see the cast having such a good time whilst entertaining a very appreciative audience.