By Amy Livingstone
If you feel as though the cold, dark and miserable winter nights are never-ending, Pantsoc’s latest offering Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is bound to boost your spirits and wash the January blues away.
Co-written by Max Tyler and Pantsoc chair Giles Littlewood, the show follows Snow White and her seven dwarves on a three hour long journey around a fairytale land. Surprisingly, I didn’t even check the clock once, due to the abundance of clever tangents from the main plot. Highlights included some hand puppets and a brilliant parody of Gladiators, complete with a body-props obstacle course and an uncanny impersonation of the legendary Scottish referee John Anderson. Links with the original fairytale are few and far between, so if you aren’t one to crave tradition, you’ll enjoy the brilliantly intelligent and modern twists that the production provides. One particularly memorable character was outrageous Dame, who played a slightly confusing dual-role, with a personality fit for Jeremy Kyle. The original dwarf line-up has also been replaced with a great new batch, notably the truly sophisticated Doc and the truly scary Derren Brown-esque Telepathy.
Helen White really stands out as a flawless Queen; witty and cunning and with some cracking vocals. The leads Snow White and Half Pint, played by Catherine Bennett and Freddie Elletson, are sickly-sweet and help retain the traditional fairytale feel; but it is the smaller roles that really knock it up a notch and add variety. There really are too many to list, but the creativity involved in creating such characters was impressive. Look out for the controversial David Cameron cameo!
The show makes full use of the space Central Hall has to offer, and as a result, the atmosphere is bright and colourful with a simple yet effective set. Audience participation was surprisingly frequent as the panto progressed which really added to the authentic fairytale feel.
Sadly, the musical numbers didn’t have the same pizzazz as the rest of the show – they seemed slightly lacklustre and under-rehearsed with some technical difficulties, with a lack of oomph from the chorus. Whilst they didn’t detract from the overall quality of the show, they were unfortunately forgotten very quickly once the next hilarious scene unfolded.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is very clever and very funny, and easily sweeps those winter blues away. With two more performances this weekend, I could easily go and see it again.