The History Of Lilleshall Pantomine
Babes In The Wood - 1994
This was the story of Babes in the Wood as no-one had ever seen it before. Les Brown, who had written the previous script, wrote this script also, (with a little help and additional material from other members of the cast), to suit the Group, now all eager to be part of the Pantomime. The ideas he used, particularly with the original premise behind the story, led to this being a complete original idea for a Pantomime story. In this version, with the tag line, 'Carabosse is back - and she's got the wand! the story was that the Sleeping Beauty had married her prince and they now had children, twins of their own. Carabosse who had tried to kill Sleeping Beauty as in the original fairy story, but been denied by fairy magic, had returned to the land, where she now sought revenge on everyone by trying to harm the royal children. In order to keep the children safe, they had been hidden amongst many children in an orphanage deep in the woods. Carabosse, hires two rather useless and impressionable characters to help her kidnap the twins if they can only work out where they are! There follows much hilarity and mistaken identity as the rather hapless minions of the witch capture the wrong twins, a larger than life chaotic pair of very overgrown children played by Geoff Lott and Les Brown. It has been said by someone that the madcap, slapstick 'feeding the twins' scene was actually based on incidents that really happened, written by a member of the cast who shall remain nameless, when she was feeding her own young children, some years ago! We wouldn't want to embarass the people concerned, especially as they may have grown up and still be with the Group today!
Another memorable scene involved the two who were under the witches thumb, attempting to pass themselves off as prospective adoptive parents so that they could get their hands on the royal twins. The character Eddy, played by Robert Watson Jones (who went on to be Musical Director in many later Pantomimes, as well as playing the Dame in others) pretended to be the husband. Meanwhile, a young Chris Wales, playing the character Bruce, dressed himself up as a bit of a femme fatale in order to play Eddy's wife. It will be a long time before those involved forget a rather shapely leg in black fishnet tights and stilletto heels being slowly extended out onto the stage from the wings, followed by a rather brightly attired Chris in a mini dress... much to the delight and cheering of a noisy and amazed audience! A colouful character was that of the ogre (don't ask!. . remember, this was a script like never before!) played rather endearingly by Mike Harris. Mike had been with the Group for many years, often playing the wicked guy, and hearing the boo...hiss....ringing in his ears so this was a pleasant change for him to be the children's favourite. (Although the hat and the nose will go down in Lilleshall Pantomime history!)
Of course, we didn't stray too far from Pantomime tradition because the bad are defeated... again!.. and the good live happily ever after.
As Don and Joan Ryder were unable to commit to this years Show, they passed on the task to Dot Fullwood who was keen to implement some ideas of her own on the electronic keyboard. Dot had always worked in Front of House before, so this was a new venture for her. The cast were very grateful to Dot and her husband, Trevor,not only for the music this year but once again for giving up her home (which was linked to the Hall) by allowing the cast and crew to use it for dressing rooms!