OKAY, let’s be honest – I’d only just returned from holiday and the last thing I wanted to do was to sit through a pantomime, but I really couldn’t have enjoyed it more.
The whole show was a joy, and the credit for that must go in particular to two people, Dave T Evans and Sarah Vandervelde. Dave not only created a wonderfully understated Dame Chatterlot – his facial expressions said it all – but he wrote a highly original and thoroughly entertaining script. And it was all brought to life with genuine flair thanks to Sarah’s outstandingly inventive direction.
Marie Coltman was a sparkling, expressive Goldilocks, well matched with Jo Pentling’s personable Prince Richard, and Brian Oliver and Sharron Pearcy were a delight as hippie-type village idiots Brussel and Sprout.
Mother, father and baby bear (Janet Barrow, Mike Hutchings & Nathan Redwood) were beautifully animated and appealing, and there were absolutely superb performances from Linda Robbins (Witch) and Terry Holbert (Fairy).
The obligatory ‘community song’, The House of Three Bears, was great fun, even if Dame Chattelot did try to confuse us all by putting up four fingers while singing about three. And I loved the animal chorus of We All Stand Together, although I did miss Rupert’s appearance. Perhaps his cousins should have invited him along. He’d have loved it too.

Linda Kirkman
Courtesy of the Bournemout Daily Echo