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YAPS look at Sleeping Beauty from a whole new angle

samuelmallen
By Sam Allen

With a new take on an old tale, Yeovil Amateur Pantomime Society’s Sleeping Beauty showed how pantomime can take us to the most outrageous places and look at the most traditional of tales from a whole new angle. In this version, by Alex Jackson, we became part of Princess’s Aurora’s dream during her long sleep, imposed by her wonderfully wicked aunt, Carabosse. Terror, hilarity and romance ensued in equal measure. And, with more than a nod to modern sensitivities, our young romantics agreed not to marry but to allow the relationship to develop further before making that commitment!

Still displaced from their home at the Octagon, YAPS transformed Westland’s Entertainment Centre into a splendid pantomime world with some terrific staging and all the best traditions of panto firmly in place. The Friday night audience was hugely appreciative of the ups and downs of the story as they were encouraged to boo, cheer and sing along. And, boy, did they love joining in. The people around me were having a whale of a time!

And why not? The laughs kept coming. There were plenty of one-liner gags and some very funny local references including plugs for the local sponsors and a couple of cheeky digs about the prolonged closure of YAPS’ natural home, The Octagon Theatre. We had slapstick, a ‘behind you’ sequence and some naughty innuendo from Nanny Nightnurse, who ended up marrying Archie the Archbishop! I told you there were some new twists in this tale.

And one of those twists was that instead of having one good fairy, we had three! The battle of good and evil was, as ever, to the fore in this show.

I particularly enjoyed the sequences with the youngsters, who were given plenty to do in this production that had an extensive and inclusive ensemble. The juniors rocked it as Revolting Children followed by some corny classroom capers that had us all in stitches! And the sequence with the young versions of our heroes was delightful.

In a fast-paced whirlwind of a tale, we had a few moments of pathos, a little introspection, romance, suspense and slosh, and there was still time for the odd sword fight with a ferocious dragon! Great fun to be had by all! The audience went home happy! And so did the cast! And so did we!

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