Hamble Players

Bringing joy through storytelling

Category: Reviews

  • Mother Goose 2021 Review

    Mother Goose 2021 Review

    The Hamble Players’ latest Christmas show Mother Goose is another testament to their commitment to the noble art of the panto, from bad jokes, silly songs, an outrageously dressed dame and a thigh slapping principal boy to good fairies, hissable baddies and a wonderful dancing goose.

    With some fabulous costumes and a good use of lighting, this a fine looking show. The music was well chosen and the dance routines built on the strengths of the performers.

    So early in its run the show had not quite hit its stride on the night that I viewed it. There were a few fluffs and pauses and the overall flow a bit uneven with some slightly awkward or abrupt changes of scene. Despite the best efforts of the cast some of the jokes and audience interaction did not quite hit their mark as effectively in the first half as the second. But these issues should resolve themselves as the show settles into its groove and the players relax fully into their roles.

    This was a real ensemble effort by the cast and crew who gave it their all and most importantly were enjoying the experience. At the centre was the figure of Wayne Ings as Mother Goose having great fun in an array of frankly amazing frocks. The role of dame requires stage presence and skill in being able to ad lib, both qualities of which he showed in great measure. Susan Barton-Leigh as Billy provided the show with a good dose of fizz and fun and she yet again exhibited a level of energy that is deserving of admiration.

    Jasmine Folkes (Colin) and Kiera Dann (Gill) made a sweet couple and sang their roles beautifully.  Lita Buckley and Mandy Boterhoek put a great deal of effort into their roles as the comic duo bailiffs Bill and Ben and worked well together, but even so the material did not always translate across as well as it might.

    Cara Thompson (Fairy Friendship) and Peter Revis (Demon Discontent) who both so clearly looked their parts, settled into their roles as the evening progressed. The use of contrasting lighting to frame the good and evil figures at opposite ends of the stage was a nice touch, although the coming and going through side doors and onto the stage was logistically somewhat challenging for Cara in her fairy winged costume.

    James Ratcliffe (The Squire), Tara Barton-Leigh (Queen Goosegog) and Jay Skyler-Wright (King Proper-Gander) all performed their roles with aplomb.

    But it was Priscilla the Goose of course who was the real scene stealer, a tremendous feat for a non-speaking role. Her egg laying routine is a memory that shall remain with me for a while.

    This was a fun way to mark the Christmas season and another enjoyable show from Hamble Players.

  • Sleeping Beauty 2019 Review

    Sleeping Beauty 2019 Review

    For this year’s panto Hamble Players have offered another slice of festive fun to get us in the mood for Christmas. A sharp script with some good topical jokes, beautiful costumes and an excellent use of lighting and sound meant that this was both a treat to the ear as well as the eye. Director Sheila Barker kept things moving along at a good pace, with room for silly routines and sing-a-longs, but without any element over-staying its welcome.

    The cast were clearly having a good time and their enthusiasm was infectious.  Anna Marie Smith was a charming Princess Rose and Susan Barton-Leigh and Grant Hearn were great fun as her parents Queen Marigold and King Cactus.  The latter’s duet in the first half was given a rapturous reception by the audience.  Maria Barnett cackled away nicely as the Bad Witch Hazel, a perfect foil for the Good Fairy Lilac (Tara Barton-Leigh) who was sweet without being too saccharine. Cara Thompson (Fetch) and Mandy Boterhoek (Carrie) also made a lovely double act – their routine with the post and postal destinations was great fun.  James Ratcliffe was wonderfully vain and dim as the Gaston-like Prince and his much more go-getting great grandson. His use of a lovely red-light sabre to fight his way into the castle was a nice touch.

    Tim Hughes settled into the role of Nurse Hettie Harpic becoming more confident as the night went on. In the first act he had not quite developed the easy rapport with the audience and with it the commanding presence required to dominate the role.

    It was great to see the younger members of the cast having an opportunity to showcase their talents and to shine both in dance and singing.  And we cannot fail to mention the charm and panache of the lovely donkey (Dave Greenhalf and Terry Barnett).

    At the centre of all this was the veritable bundle of energy that is Beverley Sell (Muddles) bringing immense charm and charisma to the role, and exhibiting a real talent for physical comedy.

    A great example of how to do panto – Christmas is indeed here!

    Karen Robson

  • The Last Talent Show 2019 Review

    The Last Talent Show 2019 Review

    It is always an interesting experience seeing a new work, since there is no road map to what might follow. It must be similarly interesting for those producing such a work to place their mark on something so pristine and new.

    The Last Talent Show, the comedy/drama written by John Quinn and Barry Tracey, is mainly set back-stage on the grand finale night of a talent show and is as much a rumination about fame and celebrity in the modern era as about talent or entertainment. The premise is explored with a degree of charm and wit and performed with great enthusiasm by the ensemble cast.

    The production has succeeded very effectively in meeting the challenge of designing a set with no set and providing space for a play within the back-stage setting. There is a clever use of the auditorium space to create two distinct spaces (back-stage and on stage) and to facilitate a real sense of movement from one arena to the other public space.

    It is early days and the production still had a slightly unfinished feel about it, as if it was not quite totally gelled.  There were amusing set pieces as we met a variety of the acts, but the first felt a bit fragmentary and uneven: it was only in the second half that it seemed to gain a greater momentum and flow.

    The performances were solid. However, there were still a few fluffed lines, the delivery of certain characters that felt a little tentative and some distracting accents that strayed rather too many degrees on the compass from the place of supposed origin. Where the characters went “big”, they certainly made an impression. So take a bow Leanne Wilkins as the traffic warden Rose Royce, Carol Ings as the singer Agnes Arbuthnot, Georgie Burton as Bobby Benjamin, the host with the annoying catch phrase making his entertainment return, and Kristy Hepworth as Mike “the Mountie” Archer, the debt collector and aspiring drummer, who was one of the highlights of the second half.  Oh and of course Princess the chicken who made fleeting but memorable appearances.

    An amusing and entertaining piece that despite not quite yet reaching its peak went down well with the audience on the night that I attended.

    Karen Robson

  • Snow White 2018 Review

    Snow White 2018 Review

    It was opening night in panto land for Hamble Players and the augers were good from the start of proceedings with the enchanting Fairy Fortune, every inch the ideal fairy godmother of such tales. At the end of the evening the audience were left with a big smile on their faces having been engaged with a fresh take on panto world courtesy of a witty and nimble script by Alan Frayn. There were plenty of jokes, both good and lame, and a rather good running gag of characters from other pantos constantly popping up and interrupting the action.

    Director Maria Barnett has created a show that flows well and makes a good use of the auditorium space. A couple of technical glitches with sound and a few fluffed lines aside, the show was already pretty much bedded in and will certainly develop and iron out any little kinks with subsequent performances.

    The scenery was cleverly done, and the design of the magic mirror was particularly impressive. There was some great use of lighting, particularly for Avarice, the wicked queen, and the costumes were magnificent.

    The production was well cast, and the company’s enthusiasm and enjoyment were contagious. Andrea Swemmer made an impressive baddy as the wicked Queen Avarice, dressed in a wonderful concoction of a costume that must be the envy of others in the evil queen costume stakes. The way she haughtily stalked up the auditorium was a delight.

    Snow White (Tara Barton-Leigh) – dressed as a very recognisable Disney princess – and the Prince (Susan Barton-Leigh) made a charming central couple and sang their roles with aplomb. The new comedy duo of Judge Quill (Tim Hughes) and his side-kick/scribe Scribbles (Lita Buckley), here as an effete eighteenth-century dandy and his rather clumsy assistant, were a welcome addition to the cast. The seven dwarfs all had distinct characters and each actor gave an endearing performance of their role.

    For the madcap antics, all credit should go to Beverley Sell as Edna and Jay Skyler Wright as Chuckles, who had a real rapport with the audience and worked hard to get them involved, even if the first night audience was somewhat reticent and subdued. Edna’s rendition of the song Moves Like Jagger was one of the high points of the evening.

    Great fun.

    Karen Robson

  • The Clove Thief 2018 Review

    The Clove Thief 2018 Review

    Set in 1569, Beth Flintoff’s fascinating play focuses on the story of three of the most powerful women of the day – Elizabeth I, Queen of England, her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, and Beth of Hardwicke, once the richest woman in England, and the person chosen by Elizabeth to play host or jailor to Mary – as told by Rose, the glove thief of the title, who finds herself used by Beth to spy on Mary.

    Slyly subverting historical narratives and representatives of gender, and with many modern resonances, the play presents these characters as strong women well able to succeed in the male dominated world of power and politics.  Indeed, these are women who can turn the feminine and seemingly harmless pastime of embroidery into a dangerous and subversive act.

    The stark black set, with its brick panels and depictions of the signatures of the two queens (based on examples found in historical documents) created the perfect backdrop for the action.  It helped enhance the sense of intrigue that was part of the narrative thread of the story. It also focused attention on the characters and dialogue, an excellent decision given that both were so worthy of attention.

    The direction was tight, choreographing the action very well and drawing out the subtleties of the narrative to its full degree.  Despite many scene changes, the production kept its pace and momentum, carefully building the sense of intrigue as the story unfolded.

    There was a good use of lighting and the costumes, although not slavish in trying to recreate the period, worked wonderfully in their depictions of the various characters.

    The production was favoured by a strong cast of young players who continue to develop and grow with each show and all gave good performances.  Eloise Green was particularly affecting as the pragmatic yet slightly haunted Beth of Hardwicke, while Jasmine Mould was in impressive form as a fittingly regal Elizabeth I.  Isabelle Whitcher showed why Mary was considered so charming and charismatic.  Georgie Burton finely illustrated the subtleties and dangerous qualities of the spymaster Lord Walsingham.  The cast managed the complexities and nuances of what was a fairly wordy script with great confidence, although perhaps there could have been a degree greater projection of voices at certain points, particularly amongst the narrators in the final scene when they were speaking over music.

    Overall an interesting piece of theatre, performed with skill and commitment.

    Karen Robson

  • Cheshire Cats 2018 Review

    Cheshire Cats 2018 Review

    Funny, honest and authentic, with something of an emotional punch, Gail Young’s play tackled a potentially tricky subject in an unfussy but sensitive manner.  Ostensibly this was the tale of the Cheshire Cats team of Hilary, Siobhan, Vicky, Yvonne and Maggie, and their eleventh-hour replacement for the sixth member of the team, as they took part in a cancer charity fundraising Moonwalk in London.  But it also took time to explore the lives of these 5 women, enabling us to learn more about their motivation for participating, a dramatic and sometimes poignant counterbalance to the comic bickering of this group of friends.

     The production was simply staged, with the minimum of props.  It moved at an excellent pace and the constant changes of scene in act 2 were managed in an interesting and dynamic way.  Great use was made of the stage and auditorium spaces, together with lighting and music, and the production was pitch perfect in capturing the euphoria and camaraderie of such charity events.

    Director Wayne Ings handled the material with confidence and sensitivity, drawing fine performances from his ensemble cast.

     The five women characters – Vicky (Beverly Sell), Maggie (Jillian Wildgoose), Hilary (Kristy Hepworth), Siobhan (Amanda Evans) and Yvonne (Sue Barton-Leigh) – were well drawn and strongly acted.  There was a real dynamic spark and believable sense of camaraderie between the characters.  Some lovely comic acting was counterbalanced by the poignancy of the soliloquies of Hilary and in particular the final one of Maggie.  The use of the soliloquy was a clever and effective device that permitted the audience a glimpse of the real person behind the façade and added to the sense of authenticity of the writing.

     Peter Revis was in fine form as Andrew the eventual sixth member of the team, revealed to have considerably more hidden depths than to the charming joker to whom we are initially introduced.  The supporting cast all enjoyed their moments, with the race marshals Madge and Emma in particular making their mark.  For anyone who travels by train, the running joke of the all too recognisable train announcement that became unintelligible at all the crucial moments was also something to enjoy.

     This was a fun and moving play that celebrated the endeavours of ordinary people undertaking extraordinary things.  It deserves to be celebrated by a somewhat larger audience than that of the football world cup semi-final night.

     Karen Robson

  • Prepare to Meet Thy Tomb 2018 Review

    This comic thriller by Norman Robbins completes the trilogy of plays about the Tomb family, a family of professional or, as it turns out, not so professional, assassins who are described as playing together and slaying together.  The evening provided a heady mix of over the top characters in a spoof with murder mystery and enough plot twists and double crossings to avoid any sense of the predictable.

    The nicely designed set – the sitting room at Monument House, a country house in Norfolk – captured perfectly the atmosphere and Gothic undertones needed for the story.  Director Sheila Barker maintained a firm grip on the proceedings, choreographing the action with precision and moving the action along at a reasonable pace.  The use of music and lighting at the end of each act highlighted the latest dramatic, usually murderous, turn in the plot, whilst also maintaining just the right comic tone.

    There was very distinct and detailed characterisation of each role, with each cast member owning their role.  All worked hard to breathe life into what could be rather one dimensional or slightly stereotypical characters.  Overall the production hit exactly the right light-hearted tone needed for the material.  There were still a few fluffed lines and moments of uncertainty; delivery could have been a bit sharper to really nail all the laughs.

    Beverley Sell (Hecuba Tomb) made the most of the role, her slightly bohemian costume and clanking beads and bracelets suggesting a figure altogether more benign than the keen poisoner and disposer of bodies that was her character.  Wayne Ings was obviously having a blast as the vainglorious and very camp Quentin Danesworth, an initially fun character that nevertheless, like some others, suffered from the one-dimensional problem.  Georgie Ray Burton was impressive as the hapless Antony Strickland, the PA with a few tricks up his sleeve, as was Kristy Hepworth as Phillipa Collins, the writer of crime fiction with more than a few ideas of her own.

    This was a fun and entertaining evening, performed with gusto and commitment by the Hamble Players.

    Karen Robson

  • Pride and Prejudice 2017 Daily Echo Review

    Pride and Prejudice 2017 Daily Echo Review

    There are numerous Austen related events in this bicentenary year of her death and Hamble Players Youth Theatre’s charming production makes a welcome addition.

    This witty and clever adaptation beautifully distils the complexities of the plot into a series of bite sized scenes, whilst retaining the best of Jane Austen’s one liners.

    A simple stage set provided a perfect background to the action, supplemented by a constant state of activity shifting around the props with the change of each scene.

    The young cast seemed to have settled well into the challenge of tackling the wordy script and very much made their characters their own. Dressed in an unexpectedly staid (and more early 20th century) style, Eloise Green imbued Lizzie with enough sparkle to overcome this and her scenes with Darcy (Charlie Baxter), who was excellent, had real wit. Charly Armstong gave an eye catching turn as the incorrigible Mrs Bennet. Karen Robson