The Saints present Pantonia!

l-r: Charlotte Ellingham (Aladdin), Jason Riley (Prince Charming), Ken Simpson (Barista Hardup), Shannon Lee (Cinderella) and Alyssa Swiney (Jasmine). Photo courtesy of Paul Bovey.

Pantonia! Co-written and directed by Paul Bovey and Geoff Manns.

A report from Paul Bovey

After a busy but enjoyable run this week, Saturday 14 February saw the final and matinee performance of the Saints Drama Society’s latest production, Pantonia! Co-written and directed by Paul Bovey and Geoff Manns, this was a panto with a twist – a story about what happened to all your favourite panto characters after they found their happy-ever-afters (or, in the baddies' case, not-so-happy-ever-afters).

Cinderella (Shannon Lee) and Prince Charming (Jason Riley) have their own TV documentary series on Webflix, Aladdin (Charlotte Ellingham) is trying to market his clean-energy self-flying carpets, Jasmine (Alyssa Swiney) has become a social activist for “Just Stop Evil” and the Ugly Sisters, Edwina (Geoff Manns) and Morgana (Daniel O’Hara), are working at Barista Hardup’s (Ken Simpson) coffee shop. Meanwhile, the exiled Wicked Queen (Sheryl Inman) and the wisecracking Abanazar (Jamie Peake) hope to gain the magical deeds of Pantonia to demolish its Old Town and build a mega-mall. With all the small businesses under threat, it’s up to the heroes to save the day.

l-r: Sheryl Inman (Wicked Queen), Jayne Ball (Magic Mirror) and Jamie Peake (Abanazar). Photo courtesy of Paul Bovey.

Although not every panto character appears in this production (and most that don’t still get a mention), Pantonia! had plenty of your favourites, along with all the traditional panto elements: silly costumes, slosh and slapstick, sing-alongs, original songs, puppetry, gender role reversals, goodies and baddies, a love story and, of course, audience participation! And there was plenty of that in this production, with the requisite “He’s behind you!” and “Oh no it isn’t!” calls and responses.

Audiences enjoyed the show, with one member calling it “an absolute joy – brilliantly witty, gloriously silly and packed with clever comedy that had my face aching from smiling by the end”.

Panto is a great British tradition and many people’s first experience of the theatre. With the wonderful cast and crew at the Saints, Pantonia! succeeded in capturing that magic.