Plymouth Evening Herald, Friday December 22 2000

Full houses for panto

THE Barbican Theatre's Christmas pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, which has its final performance tomorrow night, has been an absolute sell-out.
The curtain went up on the elaborate production on December 12, but within days booking staff had to put up the 'sold out' signs.
With two performances daily the theatre sold more than 2,300 tickets for the panto, written by Hugh Janes, directed by Sheila Snellgrove and Mark Laville, and with a cast of around 60, mainly local, acting enthusiasts.

Plymouth Extra, Tuesday December 19 2000

The fun starts even before the show begins

A LEAFY canopy, ivied pillars and banisters, and a snowy tunnel lead you to the auditorium, where a false proscenium painted with intertwined ivies and briars, and rich red curtains continue the visual pleasures even before the show starts.
Hugh Janes' script extends the familiar story with many innovative touches. Milky-White the cow features more prominently than usual, and there are important roles for the Giant's wife and King Alfred, whose secret pact with the Giant starts the whole story off.
The icily beautiful land at the top of the beanstalk is created with huge swathes of white material, while the beanstalk itself grows startlingly and reaches out into the auditorium, and the Giant's boots must be seen to be believed. (The Giant himself is a secret too good to reveal). The audio team, too, merit special praise for their inventive and crisply cued sounds. The stage is frequently filled with actors, dancers, circus performers and trapeze artists from the Barbican's workshops, whose varied talents give enthusiastic support to the featured players. Justin Webb is the pivot as another Dame in the masculine knockabout tradition, and Nik Brooks scores as King Alfred. Joe Oddie plays the ingenuous Jack, with Lindsay Bennett as his secret love, Polly.
Elizabeth Smith screeches malevolently as Demon Pestilent, feuding with Fairy Mustard (Jan Crocker), who has a tiny trainee in the form of Pixie Cress (Chelsey Lockhart).
Tobin Foote is Giant Blunderbore, Phyllis Downing his cackling wife, and Lisa Tyrrell and Shakira Williams raise much laughter as his henchmen, Smashum and Bashum, Yasmine Downing and Amberlee Foote remain unseen inside Milky-White, and the appearance of Rosie Jones as the Spirit of the Beanstalk provides another surprise.
Directed by Sheila Snellgrove and Mark Laville, this is a happy, unpretentious production by and for the community.
BILL STONE