Coleford Theatre Group Hansel & Gretel

 

Review by Caroline Wood

Coleford Theatre Group delivers the perfect pantomime as it stages Hansel & Gretel was Erin White and Isobel Billing in the lead roles.

Lots of extremely corny jokes, plenty of singing and dancing and a dame with an enviable selection of outrageous frocks.

The village of Coleford is lucky enough to have facilities that Royal British Legion club house provides including a good sized stage.

And the CTG made the most of it last week providing traditional pantomime that the audience lapped up.

Hansel and Gretel is the tale of two orphans who are about to come into a large inheritance. The wicked stepmother wants to get her hands on the cash and she is prepared to have the pair murdered to get it.

All sounds a bit grim but enter Bertie Bassett, played by Macy Norris and his mother Dame Dolly Mixture, Art and Bart and your laughing – literally.

It's not a panto if there isn't a dame and this time it's Henry Banks who sports the wig and crimson eyelashes. Paul Drake and Donald Grant are supposed to be the bad guys but fail miserably and hilariously.

Enter the wicked stepmother Peggy Toof whose evil cackle is only outdone by Alison McCausland as Witch Gumrot, who lives in a gingerbread house deep in the forest and who entices children into to her cabin so she can turn them into burnt biscuits.

Robert Harrisson plays Baron Toof, who also donned a dodgy wig and Catherine Billing as Karl who it transpires is Hansel and Gretel's long lost brother who marries Lucy played by Casey Jarvis.

Throw a couple of fairies Eva Heatley and Julia Neesam and an enthusiastic chorus into the mix and you have a charming seasonal entertainment enjoyed by both the cast that perform it and the people watching it.