SLEEPING BEAUTY

OCTAGON, YEOVIL

I’M a bit of a connoisseur of pantomimes. I see three or four every year.

This was one of the best – if not THE best I have ever seen. Hilarious from start to finish, with just the right balance of kids’ and adults’ jokes, great local gags and stupendous costumes and set – really, this had it all.

I’ve never been to the Octagon, despite being only 10 miles away in Maiden Newton, and I sorely regret that now – I will be back.

Finest point for my boy, aged seven, was the part where Jangles and the dame Nurse Nellie tried to fix a bathroom in the castle and kept being doused with water – a set triumph as well as a performing one.

My favourite was a genius sketch using lots of magazines, which took, I am told, endless rehearsals (I’m not surprised).

Nurse Nellie (Sam Rabone) knows how to play a panto audience and does it with tear-wipingly funny asides. Jack Glanville as Jangles the same, and both have an extra warmth that got the audience doing their bidding, roaring the lines back at them with gusto.

Lizzie Francis as Fairy Moonbeam and Rachael Barrington as bad fairy Carabosse were both super – great voices, timing and they won a solid rapport with the audience – I’ve never heard my lad shout so hard, and the noise from the audience was deafening.

My panto bugbear is simpering leading ladies and the princess (Victoria McCabe) wasn’t screechy or fey, and had a great voice.

The dancers were great, and the bad fairy’s dragon was so convincing a little girl in our row burst into tears – you may want to brace your child for its appearance if they’re the nervous sort!

The welcome at this smaller theatre needs mentioning – it’s a lovely warm space, and its supporters evidently love the place very dearly. The staff – many of them voluntary – seem to be so enthused and I can see why.

As with a lot of unexpected treats about Yeovil the parking is easy and it’s quite a bit cheaper for a panto night out than other places – especially once you factor in free parking after 6pm (right next to the theatre, too).

The town always surprises me – I only discovered the huge park with nine waterfalls right in its dour-looking centre two years ago – and now I discover its theatre’s a gem, too.

MIRANDA ROBERTSON