Scrooge the Panto

You couldn’t accuse Darlington Theatre Players of being Scrooge-like with their presentation of Scrooge the Panto, with a generous cast of 33, hundreds of lavish costumes and 24 songs, this is a show of abundance - and even includes lollies for the kids.

I’m not sure that A Christmas Carol works terribly well as a pantomime. Many of the themes are too serious to be ‘played with’ and despite great work from a very capable Richard Hadlar as Scrooge and the valiant efforts of Jacqui Warner as panto-dame Jan Butty - both delivering strong performances - this show often misses its mark.

There remains lots to enjoy. Very nice team-work from The Cratchit Family - real-life couple Peter and Sarah White (Bob and Mrs Cratchit), their son Joshua White as Tiny Tim and the lovely Molly O’Heir and Sophie David as daughters Susan and Katy.

The ghosts worked well. Ray Egan was strong as The Spirit of Christmas Past, Suzanna Matla sweet as The Spirit of Christmas Present and Luke Miller was a formidable The Spirit of Christmas Future. Solid work from Tim Ward as The Head Spook and Timothy Presant as Jacob Marley. The Spook Chorus worked well.

I particularly enjoyed the performances of the earnest Blake Prosser as Fred and audience favourite Jacob Clayton as the paper boy.

Lots of community theatre debuts in this show. Well done to Jana Gardner, Allan Lai, Katherine Leavers, Lilly Miller, Caitlyn Maloney (first full-length show), Niamh O’Heir (a beautiful, natural delivery), Timothy Zuiddam and Sarah Zuiddam, The ensemble cast were nicely focused.

Marjorie De Caux and Shelly Miller have created a lovely look, with some gorgeous period costuming, with a solid, admirable set by George Boyd.

Pantomime business was nicely handled. There is lots of talent in this group. I would love to have seen some stronger musical direction to allow some voices with good potential to really soar.

A lovely community feel for this final show in Darlington’s Diamond Jubilee, which is enjoying capacity houses.

Kimberley Shaw