Sleeping Beauty Panto @ Durham Gala

They say that fortune favours the brave, well, after watching this festive feast, Fortune,  Steve Fortune that is, favoured us all. 

The story of Sleeping Beauty is well known as one of the more traditional panto favourites - plenty of scope for beautiful princesses, wicked wizards, helpful fairies and of course a panto dame.  In an age where kids' imaginations are grabbed by Harry Potter, Transformers and a whole host of TV wizardry, I feared that the annual stage-set story telling would fall between the CGI cracks but my fears were completely misplaced.  What the production team at Durham Gala have done is to bring the story and it's portrayal right up to date. The set designs are vibrant and deep, the choreography is very 'street' and the cast are very much in tune with their audience.   I won't spoil the very special effects save to say they drew gasps from the audience,young and old, but this is very much a panto for the modern day audience.

Of course, panto wouldn't be panto without the usual audience participation - "Oh yes it would" - and the Gala at Durham is possibly the best venue in the north east for bringing audience and performers together. The proximity of the seats to the stage, the fact that the orchestra is sat up high to the side and the perfect sight lines mean every person was close enough to see, hear and on many occasions feel the action (they could even mark the first 8 rows as a designated 'splash zone').  The cast, in particular Dame Miriam and Silly Billy use this perfectly, and keep the feeling of inclusion and participation going right to the end.

Talking of Dame Miriam, Steve Fortune is simply fantastic - he knows how to deliver not just double entendres but triple and quadruple ones - the kids love his wacky outfits, the mum's envy his 'womanly' strength and the men just marvel at how he manages to dance in 'those' heels. Played with much more burlesque than camp, Steve and his/her son Silly Billy (played to big kid perfection by Paul Hartley) are the perfect counterfoil to the evil wickedness of Wizard Scorchard (Neil Armstrong) and his minions.

Pantos are all about family fun and this show delivers it in buckets, literally buckets.  If you haven't got your tickets yet, get them now and treat yourself to a fab night out - you know you want to......Oh yes you do !!