Sidbury into Drama’s 16th pantomime, ‘Dick Whittington’ was presented in the Village Hall in late February.

The pantomime was written and directed by Katharine Ward and follows the story of lowly Dick from Sidbury and his quest for fame and fortune in London. Our hero was perfectly portrayed by newcomer Ebony Bartlett, ably assisted by his companion, a cat called Tommy, who was wonderfully performed by Esther Murdoch. The villain of the pantomime, the evil King Rat, was played with menace by Ian Harbour, which was nicely balanced by his two incompetent hench-rats played with good comedy timing by Tracey Stone and Shela Lewis.

Once in London the love interest was provided by Vicky Grove who charmingly played the panto’s heroine, Alice Fitzwarren. Alice was the daughter of Alderman Fartwell Fitzwarren, played by John Rush, whose predilection for excessive wind gave added humour to the role.

The main comic roles were played by Andy Tilbrook, who was both flamboyant and funny as Dame Saucy Suet, and Dave Foreman who played the Dame’s love interest, Captain Salty, with a nautical air. Emma Murdoch added additional humour as Idle Jack, Dame Suet’s useless son, and Chris Sheppard as the acerbic food inspector (with swear words bleeped out) Gordon Gristle.

In the final scene on the Island of Toofaatoogo we were introduced to Anne Jones as Mavis Rattenborough, whose similarity to a famous natural history broadcaster was striking. Ratlings and Lemurs were played with absolute charm by SIDS juniors William Austin-Rigby and Lois Jones and the King who appeared at the finale scene was portrayed with regal authority by Chris Ward. It should be added that Katharine Ward stepped in at the last minute to play Fairy Bow Bells

The whole performance was supported by the chorus of Londoners, villagers and sailors played by Jill Glazier, Sheila Lennox, Cherryl Martin, Diana Cockburn, Mark Billingham, Heather Billingham, Sue Pratt and Georgia Dent.

Dick Whittington was a triumph for SIDS, it played to capacity audiences on most performances and received complimentary comments on social media. We look forward to the next one – oh, yes we do!