There is always a lovely freshness about Buxton Drama League pantos and this year’s Puss in Boots keeps the audience fully engaged and in no danger of catnapping.
Likeable Will Clay plays Jack, a poor miller’s son whose less than purr-fect legacy from his father’s will is a talking cat. However, Puss (Laura Bowers making a striking debut) proves less cat-astrophic than you might think, helping Jack to win the hand of animal-loving Princess Alice (Jemima Cox) and become a better person in the process.
Less enamoured of Puss is the wicked Lord Roger (Jayne Fanthorpe Walker in unexpected but brilliant casting), who wants to marry Alice and whisk the kingdom away from the King and Queen (BDL stalwarts Peter Stubbington and Maria Carnegie). Our moustachioed villain also has help from “henchmen for hire” Nosmo King and Nopar King (lively comic double-act Holly Howe and Eleanor Wrieden) and an unseen local ogre… Just as well that Jack also has an ally in larger-than-life Dame Hettie Quette (a very professional turn from Duncan Campbell).
Reliable narrator Carol Spencer keeps us abreast of plot developments (with more than a little help from enraptured youngsters in the audience) but director Robbie Carnegie also likes to give the illusion that actually, anything could happen. This is a laugh-aloud panto where the entrepreneurial henchmen are as unpredictably hapless as candidates on The Apprentice and cheesecake (think custard pie) could end up just about anywhere. Moreover, the traditional bench scene is genuinely full of gleeful twists. There’s not even a ghost, though don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security…
As ever the BDL panto, performed in the friendly setting of Burbage Institute, is a team effort boasting fantastic costumes, sets, sound effects and music. New musical director (Oliver Jodrell) and choreographer (Toni Saxton) ensure the song and dance numbers are full of cat-itude, particularly The Aristocats’ Everybody Wants to Be a Cat, which had even the musicians dancing.
This talented, all-ages cast is eager to entertain you. There are three more performances to enjoy on Friday February 7, 7.30pm and Saturday February 8, 2.30pm and 7.30pm with tickets available from https://buytickets.at/buxtondramaleague/1472867.