Dick Whittington – Priory Theatre (Amateur)
reviewed 21 December 2023
3/5
Dick Whittington lost his way a little.
We get to see some great amateur pantomimes, and the Priory panto is usually no exception. Unfortunately, at least on the night we were there, this year’s offering seemed to miss the target. As it was only the second performance you could forgive the odd fluffed line, and the first couple of times it was quite funny. Sadly, it happened a little too often, with the rest of the cast being put off their stroke, which was a shame.
Another Priory staple that was missing this year was the slosh scene. We couldn’t help feeling the scene with the cakes in Fitzwarren’s store was a missed opportunity, along with the shipwreck, which dragged on a little. Given the show’s title, you expect some innuendo, but some of the lines delivered by Steve Bingham as Dame Flossie Fitzwarren seemed a little near the knuckle for a family show. There were some great individual performances though.
The script by Ethan J Smith, who also directed, was quite wordy at times, but congratulations to Owen Prosser-Stock as Idle Jack for coping with some particularly difficult and funny tongue twisters, and finally sorting his DVD collection!
Sophie Wiseman did a great job as Tommy the Cat – a role she shares with Tilly Main, despite a few issues with her microphone. Linzi Mills as Dick, and Violet Carpenter as Alice Fitzwarren were great as the love-struck strangers, with some great singing and dancing. Congratulations to Team London too who worked hard as the villagers, ship’s crew, and rats.
Hopefully, the technical issues can be ironed out, and the cast can pull together to bring this priory panto back to where we know they can be. Dick Whittington runs until 7th January.