Oh Yes We Did!
Despite being a man who will never see 50 again I have never, as far as I can remember, seen a pantomime. So when Lynda invited me along to watch the first night of Peter Pan at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmonds I was quietly delighted. And it’s fair to say that we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
The main reason for the jaunt was to watch Lynda’s beautiful and very talented daughter Joanne perform in the pantomime. Joanne has always had a love for the performing arts. She began practicing ballet at nine years old and from the age of ten attended a performing arts club every Saturday. Joanne clearly had talent and Lynda was advised to sign Joanne to an agency. She appeared in a Shredded Wheat advert soon afterwards.
After secondary school Joanne went on to study performing arts and she has been working professionally ever since. Joanne has appeared in feature films such as Mamma Mia! and the Harry Potter series, has worked in television, and has performed in countless musical theatre productions and plays. She also appeared in an advert with Tina Turner. Her main love is acting and she would welcome the opportunity to perform more Shakespeare.
The Theatre Royal is a beautiful building. It is one of only eight Grade 1 listed theatre buildings in the UK, and is the only working theatre operating under the auspices of the National Trust.
It recently celebrated it’s bicentenary. With only 360 seats it is certainly intimate and Lynda and I had prime seats with a great view of the stage. So with our tubs of chocolate ice cream we settled down to watch the show.
So how did I find my first experience of pantomime? It was great! An excellent production that provided plenty of opportunity for the kids to shout and holler while at the same time including one or two slightly risqué jokes for the adults.
In fact the greatest pleasure for me was watching just how involved the kids got. They loved it!
The cast was very good. There were some great set pieces with plenty of opportunity to sing along with the characters. I know I’m biased, but Joanne stood out as the most outstanding performer.
Don’t just take my word for it though. In its review the Suffolk Village News said that Joanne “is the star of the show”. She plays Captain Hook’s menacing sidekick Mad Maud. The Suffolk Village News goes on to say that “she is also wonderfully sea-saltingly alluring as Miranda the Mermaid”. She certainly channels her inner Mae West in this part. Lynda is rightly very proud of her daughter.
So all in all we had a lovely time. Great seats in a beautiful old theatre, a thoroughly enjoyable show, good company and a trouble free journey each way. The ice cream was pretty good too!
