Wishee Washee?   Oh No It Isn’t!

BYFLEET Players wowed audiences with their performance of Aladdin at the Village Hall last week.

With packed-out evening shows of the ‘Village Pantomime’, directed by Linda Street, last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and a full-house matinee on Saturday, the production included a heady mix of all the magic and mayhem that bring together the truly British tradition we all know and love today.

Fabulous costumes transformed an exuberant cast - including Emily Fennell (Aladdin), Paul Stiff (Widow Twankey) and Kim Sullivan (Wishee Washee) – into familiar favourites, with all the gags, music, dance and slapstick we expect and had the audiences rocking in their stalls and roaring with laughter.

Excellent dancing by the youngsters of the Allegro Performers Academy complemented the energetic efforts of the older members of the cast.

It was The Players’ fifth production of Aladdin with the script, provided by Noda Pantomimes, written by the late Peter Denyer, best remembered for his role of Dennis Dunstable in the TV series Please Sir and The Fenn Street Gang.

The pantomime was dedicated to the memory of Pauline Francis, who was very much involved with previous pantos and many other productions as an actor, director and a wardrobe mistress, who sadly passed away in December. ‘A very talented yet modest lady, sadly missed’.