Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

Queen's Theatre, Barnstaple

Review: Rosanna Rothery

SHE'S the registered nurse with a roly poly behind. Indeed her generous, gyrating, bulbous buttocks give a whole new meaning to "It's behind you!". Bopping around in a black leotard à la Beyonce, David Phipps-Davis as Nurse Nora makes for a bootilicious (albeit a tad butch) beauty in this year's panto.

Not that she's bringing up the rear in the voice department. Her deep tones boom out harmoniously in a night of enthusiastic, ear-rending performances – well if you can't be over-the-top in panto, when can you?

Mark Reeves, as usual, builds a delightful rapport with the children and there's some suitably sticky slapstick when he (Muddles) and Nurse Nora decorate the Evil Queen's bedroom.

My favourite performance though, perhaps surprisingly, is a supporting one. Jonathan Wadey plays the Queen's slave Herman The Henchman, a sycophantic and snivelling subordinate who, in the end, turns out to be smart, sneaky and not as spineless as he looks (his world-defeated, droopy demeanour, though, is a comic delight). Watch him steal the scene at Snow White's birthday party – surreptitiously getting sozzled in the background.

As villains go Ally Holmes, playing Queen Elvira, might have stepped out of the pages of Vogue. Striking, stylish and stuck up – the glint in her glamorous eye, rather more disdainful than dastardly. Little girls in the audience, meanwhile, might relate to sweet Snow White (Kirsty McCallum) and Fairy Moonbeam, a roller skating rabble-rouser who can't quite get to grips with rhyme (Jenny Perry).

On opening night the production soon started to warm up, taking off in the second half with some traditional "he's behind you" ghosty goings-on. It was lovely to hear little ones laughing loudly and letting rip with their larynxes. That's what it's all about, after all. In panto, the maxim that "the old ones are the best" always seems to ring true.

Local young people playing the dwarfs mime their parts very well, keeping perfect timing with their "famous" voices (pre-recorded by a top voice-over artist). Congratulations to them. The little folks' house in the woods is very cute too.

Children taking part in the production are:

The Hi villagers: Darcy Bladock, Mica Evans, Laura Imeson, Yas Smale and Jess Thompson.

The Hi dwarfs: Esme French, Lily French, Chloe Hardman, Oliver Ivan, Jed Kerby and Hannah Wells.

The Ho villagers: Steph Coats, Ellie Councell, Rhys Deane, Summer Robinson and Ella Tagg.

The Ho dwarfs: Zahra Bedford Higgs, Lotti Calvert, Lani Cloke, Jack Danson, Moo Lovering and Meg Williams.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs is at the Queen's Theatre, Barnstaple until Monday, January 2. Box office: 01271 324242.