Little Red Riding Hood (Archive)

A Pantomime by Mark Frampton

January 1999

The traditional fairy tale of Red Riding Hood, with added magic, mayhem and the Three Little Pigs…

Cast

Dame Beatrice Day Mark Frampton
Little Red Riding Hood (Lil) Ruth Staton
Wolf Slyboots Paul West
Granny/Vermillion the Vile Brenda West
Romeo di Caprio Guy Bishop
Rasher Cath Staton
Streaky Jill Mowlam
Smokey Chris Ward
Fire John Staton
Brimstone Sarah Lawes
Lil’s Dad (Frank) Mike Calvert
Soothsayer Ken Beer

Crew

Producer Iain MacPherson
Co-producer Phil Kohler
Stage Manager Chris Squire
Set Design George Muller
Set Construction Members of the Group
Sound Chris Pearson
Lighting Ian Squire
Props Christine Sutton
Prompt Hazel Galvin
Piano Jenny Smith
Front of House Barry West
Original Song Lyrics Iain MacPherson & Phil Kohler
Make-up Karen & Iain MacPherson
Ticket Sales Ken Beer
Publicity Joseph Hughes

Review

From the Leamington Courier:

Pigs Made Audience Squeal

Three Little Pigs are not the usual stars of much loved fairytale Little Red Riding Hood.
But Rasher, Streaky and Smokey stole the show in the Cubbington Players’ pantomime version of the story.
Cath Staton, Jill Mowlam and Chris Ward had the audience howling with laughter with their antics, and turned an otherwise touching moment into comedy when they became backing singers during shy boy Romeo’s (Guy Bishop) rendition of What Can I Do To Make You Love Me.
Mark Frampton played a wonderfully larger-than-life Dame Bea Day, the estate agent looking for love with the wood cutter (Mike Calvert). The usual pantomime chants of ‘he’s behind you’ and ‘oh no you’re not’ were there, but thankfully not overplayed.
And the youngsters had a chance to get up on stage and imitate seals, leprechauns and a duck-billed platypus.
But there was the odd adults-onlyjoke sneakily thrown in to keep the grown-ups amused too.
Paul West’s Big Bad Wolf Slyboots was a joy to watch – a loveable rogue with an obsession for fashion vanity.
The set was appropriately bright and cheerful and the script hilarious.
But although the witch and the wolf took turns, there was not really a strong pantomime baddy to encourage the audience’s cries of ‘boo hiss’.
The wolf was excused for being bad because he was under an evil spell, and the witch did not move from her seat throughout.
However the Cubbington Players gave an evening of laughs and deserved more than the half-full auditorium they received on the first night. 3/5