Magical and mesmerising Sleeping Beauty opens at Daylesford

An audience was transported to a magical fairyland at the opening night Sleeping Beauty last night.

The small stage at Daylesford Theatre was transformed into a children’s bookcase and the backdrop was a giant book complete with turning pages, with each page depicting the different scenes throughout the play. Great work by set designer and painter Nancy Thompson and construction by Martin Biffin.

It’s clear that the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society had made the most of staging the play in the smaller theatre — the Christmas pantomime historically is performed at City Hall but couldn’t this year due to a booking conflict.

The fairies had a very strong presence in this version of the play, written by Carol Birch — there were no fewer than four fairies, each as amusing as the other. Stephen Notman as the particularly despicable Fairy Batsie was most memorable with his flirtatious behaviour, outlandish fashion sense and array of towering foam wigs. He and Fairy Edema (Alan Brooks) made a brilliant double act while Fairy Babble (Deborah Raat) was loved by all the children. Fairy Saffron (Emma Muggleton) came into her own through song — she may be a fairy but her voice is truly angelic.

Jennifer Osmond, was truly wicked as the witch Evilena — it’s a role she plays particularly well as she demonstrated in Birch’s last panto Fire Bird.

It was great to see the legendary Connie Dey take to the stage in her 20^th pantomime, her part as the Queen of Messy Plutomium was very brief but she still made a presence. Chris Dyer made quite a charming Prince Felix and Mikaela Kawaley-Lathan a very sweet Sleeping Beauty and the little actors brought the stage to life.

The plot was loosely based on the original fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty but with an original script and music.

There were a few references to Lord of the Rings in Birch’s version of Sleeping Beauty, the wicked Evilena’s hunched henchman Dullum (sound like Gollum much?) was obsessed with a wand he called “Precious”. This was a nice twist.

The music was fun and the chorus particularly enjoyable. They really nailed a host of quite complicated harmonies which is where its strength lay.

The lighting and special effects were also winners and the costumes design by Deborah Joell, Barbara Outbridge, Shirley were beautifully lavish.

The panto is showing at Daylesford Theatre until December 14.