An enjoyable evening is usually assured at Chipperfield Theatre Group’s annual pantomime and this year’s offering Pinocchio was no exception. A relatively faithful interpretation; we sang, cheered, booed and hissed our way through the piece as our hero made the often difficult transition from puppet surrogate to Gepatto’s fully fledged son. And there was not a test tube in sight.
Anne Pinkus modestly puts her casting in the title role down to her petite stature but in doing so she does herself an injustice. For a more assured and confident performance it would be difficult to envisage. Word perfect and charismatic, she was ably assisted by the usual suspects – particularly Wendy East as Cricket – and carried the play through its somewhat leaden opening.
There was a notable improvement mid way through the first half with the courtroom scene featuring a memorable cameo from Bill Callcut. This was such a hoot that Gepato’s fluffed lines merely added to the merriment. From this moment on it seemed that there was a collective sigh of relief and the cast never looked back. Pedants might argue that the plot lacked continuity and that some characters were not adequately introduced but this was fully compensated by the breathless efforts of those involved. The pace picked up, the jokes came thick and fast and the scenery and costumes were spectacular. Although occasionally solitary singers struggled to be heard, overall the stage management was impressive. There were some classy touches – the ultra violet and strobe lighting effects alone were worthy of the refurbished Watford Palace and the faultless children’s performances, most notably Alice Phillips’ baton twirling, gave the show a genuine family flavour.
A trio of antagonists attempted to thwart the pliable Pinocchio on his road to righteousness. The most disturbing was Simon Phillips’ sinister coachman. A kind of Cornish Childcatcher, he lured the popular puppet for a promise of no-strings frivolity at Funland where I half expected to see Martin Bashir making a documentary.
Inevitably, if perhaps belatedly, the elongated nose was played for laughs and there were plenty of laughs as well as songs, dances and mischief to be had. Short of Wee Jimmy Krankie falling from a giant beanstalk, you can’t ask for much more than that.
Jason Cox

From Wendy Bathurst:
Just to set the record straight, Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus took place in my Grandfather’s “Long Field” at Hill Farm, Kings Langley (now cut into 2 short fields by the A41 bypass!). My father, Moss Baldwin, was 11 years old at the time and was greatly impressed by the wing walkers. He would often talk about it when we were working in that field. They would have liked to return the following year, but Grandfather said they had left too much mess. My father won the “Guess The Altitude Competition” and went up in the last flight of the day. He was horrified to see the ground beneath him through a hole in the fuselage between his feet!