| |
-----000-----
This year's production was produced and directed by Brian Buttle. It's was his twelfth production for the Wayfarers and unfortunately it was his last. His previous production with us was Peter Pan, one of many award winning productions he has produced and directed for us. Included in those twelve shows were 380 songs, 110 dance routines, 210 comedy routines, 15 flying routines, over 650 custard pies and 1000 pages of dialogue.
In this production the part of Pinocchio was taken alternatively by Georgie Rosser and Nicholas Brown and that of Jiminy Cricket by Abbie Morgan and Stephanie Rosser. Their outstanding performances set the scene for the whole production. Pinocchio was brought to life by the good and sparklingly Fairy played by Amber Samuel, she was also the one who using her magical powers to grow Jiminy to a size that could been seen by the audience. Geppetto the toy maker who "fathered" Pinocchio was played by Magnus Stewart. Ray Jarvis was Mama Macaroni who not surprisingly with a name like that ran a pasta and pizza business aided or was it hindered by Lampwick, played by Stuart Lloyd. Stuart was awarded the Mary Stewart Wilson award for his performance. Jo Thorne played Mama Macaroni's son Antonio, who loved and protected Geppetto's daughter Maria played by Catherine Sanders. The bad person in all this was Stromboli, the puppet master, played most nastily by Neil West, who wanted to take all the children back to his "pleasure" island to work in the mine after turning them into donkeys. He was aided by Mini and Maxi Morissini played by Nikki Court and Simon Wilmott respectively. Needless to say it all ended happily ever after. This year, we were very pleased to see that the dancers and company were joined by a group of youngsters from "TWYGs", the junior section of the Wayfarers Pantomime society.
-----000----- |
