Review – The Pied Piper pantomime by Southport Dramatic Club at Southport Little Theatre
The Pied Piper pantomime production is now open at Southport Little Theatre and has everything you want from a panto – superb performers, great songs, cracking scenes, awful jokes, swarms of rats and tonnes of sausages…
Our family have seen lots of pantos in Southport over the years, but this was the first time any of us have ever seen the Pied Piper.
It was lovely to see something new, a story that’s not as familiar as the other more familiar ones.
The German theme gave scope for lots of good German themed jokes – when Heidi was on stage without her fiance, she could say ‘Look no Hans!’ – without going down the Fawlty Towers playbook.
It was very well written by Alan Frayn and well produced by John Coates. There were lots of very catchy family songs, aimed at the children in the audience and based on current and recent trends – some popular ones from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, perfect with the Wonka movies in cinemas at the moment; Barbie; Love Is An Open Door from Frozen; and I’m A Believer, which featured at the end of one of the Shrek movies.
Set in the whimsical town of Hamelin, the story follows the adventures of Pippin, who arrives in the town just when it’s facing a rat infestation. The townspeople, desperate to rid themselves of the pesky rodents, eagerly promise to reward the piper handsomely if he can solve their problem. However, the town’s Burgomeister, goes back on his promise and things take an unexpected twist.
As pantos go, this one was very much a musical one, bursting with musical numbers, dancing and lots of audience participation, with children (and adults) in the theatre enjoying the chance to join in.
It’s an auditorium suited to it, with the audience feeling close to the stage due to its layout.
It fits, with this being very much a community panto. All local actors, production crews and other behind the scenes supporters who work all year towards making this happen.
It’s lovely seeing the SDC family evolve, with the senior members proudly guiding the younger ones through. What an opportunity it gives to young performers wanting to take to the stage.
No wonder so many have gone on to enjoy top class stage and screen careers.
This is Southport’s very own Rat Pack.
The young dancers in Pied Pier were superb. They weren’t hidden at the back, they were very much front and centre with some excellent sequences in their own right.
Lots of hard work and choreography has clearly gone into their routines, and it paid off as they were excited perfectly. Playing the Ratlets, Piglets and Children, they are all from ACE Academy
You get the sense of the SDC as being a real family, a real community. Where this really pays off is in the relationships and the chemistry between various characters which is essential for the show’s success.
The enduring battle was between Fairy Strudel (Zoe Findlay) and Sour-Kraut (Karen Nightingall), both excellent as they cast light and dark, both with some very tricky tongue-twisting lines to remember and deliver.
Helga (Rikki Spofforth) and son Willie (Caraig Billington) were brilliant in delivering many of the slapstick laughs and getting the audience involved.
Heidi (Lucy Brown) and Hans (Matty Higginson) delivered some superb lines and dance routines, as they tried to persuade Burgomeister (Chris Gerring) to pay the due reward to pied piper Pippin – played by Chris’ daughter, Charlotte Gerring. It was lovely to see father and daughter in two of the lead roles, both very talented. You’ll never see a Burger King Meister in Southport.
Edward James and Bethany Hill earned lots of laughs as the comically hapless rat-catchers Blatter and Splatter, where they were outwitted by the cunning Rat-Worst (Guy Tatler) and his army of rodents.
There was great comedy support too from Cheeky, Squeaky and Leaky (Rebecca Halsall, Serafina Campolucci-Bordi and Andrew Dummet-Edge), more great chemistry and another avenue for fun.
We watched the show two days after Christmas (luckily getting home from the Little Theatre before Storm Gerrit arrived!) and it was the perfect way of keeping the festive spirit going after the turkey had run out.
The Pied Piper opened on 22nd December 2023 and is perfectly timed to allow families to make the most of the Christmas school holidays, running until 7th January 2024.
For tickets visit: littletheatresouthport.co.uk
Both performances of Pied Piper on Saturday 6th January will be signed performances.
Signed performances are for the benefit of patrons who use sign language. Trained British Signed Language (BSL) signers usually stand to one side of the stage and interpret the script used by the performers at the same time as it is being performed.
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