For this year’s pantomime, The Trull Players presented ‘Panto Royale!’, written by members Jennie Rusinek and Dave Jones. Audiences loved our amazing show and here is Egbert Dullsworthy's review
When I’m at home, an enjoyable evening usually consists of cleaning the crumbs out of the toast rack or pairing my socks (all subtle shades of beige). But recently, I booked myself a ticket to hear a 5-hour-long talk on the history of the Victorian wool industry. When I entered Trull Memorial Hall, I was surprised to see a full-house of excited adults and children. I had supposed this to be a testament to the popularity of Victorian wool, and indeed, all types of historical haberdashery. But as the curtains opened on stage, I realised to my horror, that there had been some awful ticket mix-up, and I was, in fact, at a pantomime.
And not any normal pantomime – a secret agent pantomime, of all the preposterous things!
The stage quickly filled with annoyingly talented people who could sing and dance – some of them at the same time. It quickly became clear that the actors expected us, the audience, to join in with their on-stage shenanigans. This shows laziness because they were essentially asking us to do half the work for them (I will be sending them a bill for my time and effort, as soon as I have calculated the VAT). A few of the actors had to be told, repeatedly, that someone was behind them. They were also extremely argumentative and often had prolonged disagreements with the audience (Oh yes they did). I could tell that the other audience members were as uncomfortable as I was, because some of them were actually crying with laughter.
I must mention the ridiculous character names: casino singer Burley Shassey, Russian double-agent Ivana Botticoff, robot bin B-1-N and robot kettle T-4-2, to name but a few. The hero, called Blonde, James Blonde was one of those ‘chosen one’ types who saves the world and wins the heart of the lovely Miss Spendapenny. Their beautiful singing of a romantic duet had everyone enthralled, which was sickening.
All the colourful costumes, props and scenery must have taken hours of work and I found the final effect to be entirely overstimulating. The Dame’s costumes got more and more outlandish and one of her many outfits (an undercover showgirl) was scandalously revealing! It’s unclear what was holding that dress up, but it was possibly the collective will of everyone in the room.
And then there were the hoards of junior chorus, impressing the audience (not me) with their performance and looking like they were having the time of their lives. No one has any business being so talented at such a young age!
I’m not one to be ungracious in my reviews, so I will say that the cup of tea that I was given in the interval was acceptable.
All in all, the cast and crew of Panto Royale! worked side by side in an ostentatious show of talent and togetherness, resulting in far too much laughter and applause from the audience. Down with this sort of thing!
As soon as it was all over, I fled to my car, undid the steering wheel lock (Trull is a dodgy area) and put my foot down to get away from there, fast (20mph max).
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