The Girls’ First Panto – Sleeping Beauty at The Roses, Tewkesbury
We have only just discovered The Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury this year, and I feel like I have been missing out. It is a brilliant venue, and the girls have enjoyed Dog’s Don’t Do Ballet and Monstersaurus over the last few months. These have been under an hour long and they have managed to be absorbed in the performances throughout. I decided that they were probably ready for a pantomime. We were invited to The Roses for their annual panto. This year it is Sleeping Beauty.
The girls weren’t sure what to expect, but had loved their previous experiences at The Roses so were very excited. They were doubly excited to find out that their friend Erin (accompanied by fellow local blogger Emma) would also be there.
The panto had everything that you would expect from a traditional pantomime. There was a dame, local “in” jokes, audience participation, singing and dancing, a great baddie (and fairly useless side-kick) and a cooking scene which inevitably ends in custard pies being thrown around in gay abandon. Despite being able to tick off all the panto-essentials, it didn’t feel formulaic. The show, which was written and directed by Ben Crocker, managed to hit all the right notes with both kids and adults. There were lots of laughs for the children but plenty to also keep the parents and grandparents there giggling too.
The performance from all the actors was great – including the fantastic youngsters making up the chorus. The wicked fairy generating plenty of booing and hissing from audience, but the stars of the show had to be King Nobby and the brilliant dame Queen Dotty. Together they provided most of the funniest parts of the show. The singing, dancing and costumes made the whole performance a really wonderful spectacle.
The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Freyja couldn’t pick a favourite part of the panto as she “loved all of it!” but Emily enjoyed the slapstick humour and the wicked fairy (although she wanted to sit on my lap and have a cuddle whenever she appeared). As much as I enjoyed the panto, what I loved the most was watching how involved Emily was. She was completely absorbed in the whole performance – joining in with “oh yes he is!” and “behind you!” whenever it was called for.
Overall, Sleeping Beauty at The Roses is everything you would want in a pantomime. There is enough to entertain all ages and the two hour performance seemed to fly by. It definitely feels like we are in the midst of the Festive Season now. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and wouldn’t hesitate to go back again for the panto next year!
Sleeping Beauty is on until 31st December 2017 with tickets ranging from £12 to £27.50 – more details here.
Disclaimer: We were provided with tickets to the performance but as you can probably tell we loved the panto and would wholly recommend it
