Launton Village Pantomime: Hickory Dickory Dock - photos and a review

The Pixie of the Clock (Chris Cook) in full song in the 2023 Panto

A collage of production photos from the show follows

Hickory Dickory Dock: Launton Village Pantomime 2023

On Saturday 18 February, I saw the Launton Village Players’ latest work - Hickory Dickory Dock. Playing on the nursery rhyme, Rod and Nikki wrote a ‘Fine’ and innovative script that brought Launtonia to Bicester for a comedic show of song and dance. As we took our seats the band set the tone with the perky sounds of the Panto overture and went on to perform wonderful original music throughout the night. Interval drinks ordered from the lovely Front of House team, programme in hand, and the clock mouse peeking out at the audience, Hickory Dickory Dock began.

Chris Cook (or should I say the Pixie of the Clock, see the front cover) stole the show from line one, with super high energy and the encouragement of audience participation throughout - including almost walking off stage in his initial soliloquy saying “I don’t have to tell you!” as we clamoured to get him back. Then our resident villain King Wonderful (Mark Hudson) was introduced with boos from the audience as he helped the Magician (Beth Heale) collect a magical fruit (which fell with a satisfying slide whistle) in return for a spell to make him King … and from there our story begins. Dame Lily and her son Tom (Miles Penhallow and Daisy Ash) are then roped in to travel the world collecting cogs to fix the clock and dethrone King (not so) Wonderful.

“Welcome to Launtonia” brought on the chorus with some well known faces, classic costumes and an exciting middle eight in the song! At this point, the audience were hooked and full of energy - one child uttered a “woah” at the sight of the wizard’s magic and, I for one, was very happy to see the first of many traditional “thigh slap” panto moments. The children’s chorus (clock mice) delighted us as in a dance with our resident pixie, who kept to the beat and twirled his smaller co-stars into a lovely end position. The next song started powerfully, with a full cast holding big pieces of wonderfully painted cheese - a favourite sandwich filling for all - then with a variety of formations along with well written lyrics, shone a light on the glorious thing that is a cheese sandwich. [Author note: if Dame Lily is stopping by, I’d like red Leicester and a bit of mayonnaise please xx]

First stop on the world tour in search of the clock pieces was the Old and Wild West, where Nicky Roberts starred as Jessie, who entered with an enthusiastic yee-haw and kept her accent up with conviction throughout the show. Tom’s eye was caught and a sweet duet full of love ensued; I was struck by the gorgeous harmony and hope to hear more of that next year.

Now, I can’t go any further without introducing my favourite bit of the show – the iBad (a prop of sheer beauty!). It is as it sounds, an iPad for villains! The audience guffawed at the pun, which was built on by Dick and Dock (Rod Fine and Dan Chilvers) as they desperately repeated “Hey Siri” only to be met by Silly – the iBad’s unhelpful assistant. The voiceover of Silly was perfect use of multimedia and even more laughs followed as Dick and Dock facetimed King Wonderful, animatedly talking without making any noise… to realise they were on mute! Rod and Dan were perfect in their roles, and I hope for their sakes they avoid cacti in the future!

Second stop: the North Pole. The children’s chorus made the cutest elves as well as clearly loving being in the limelight - I’m sure there were some very proud parents sat in the audience and that the chaperones enjoyed a little respite while watching from the wings! Jessie (Nicky Roberts) did a fantastic job fixing Santa’s (Andy Roberts’) sleigh, with fun sound effects adding to the “realism” of the endeavour! The first half ended with an appearance from Rudolph (Chris Cook and Marcus Lamb) who was a wonderful addition to the scene and the catchy toys song sent us on our way to refreshments.

After the interval, the audience were on the edge of their seats, raffle tickets in hand, desperately rereading their numbers as the prizes taunted us from the stage. This was all in support of Nai’s House - the chosen charity offering a suicide prevention service and empowering young people. Unfortunately, I didn’t win but I was still thankful to be supporting such a worthwhile cause. Glowsticks in hand, we settled into our seats as the music started up once more and Silly on the iBad opened up singing “Let it go” - such a shame it was frozen!

As we had now travelled to the South Pole, the whole cast filled the stage in their penguin costumes. The song was catchy, costumes looked stunning on every cast member, and the choreography consisted of lots of interesting formations and finally some lovely harmony with the oos!

Then we travelled to the mystic East where the band made their way onto stage (led by musical director Steve Webber) and stole the limelight with their ukuleles - I also picked out a glorious bassline played by Simon Turner. Sarah Turner showed her skill on a variety of instruments, while Giles Conway kept beat with the percussion and John Nelson showed his musical prowess on the guitar and ukulele. Finally, our heroes restored Princess Leilani’s (Cathy Procopiou) happiness, grabbed their final cog and headed home.

Back with King Wonderful in Launtonia, he decided he needed a sandwich… which descended into total chaos as he roped in two of his subjects to make one for him. He sat in butter, his crown was stolen, a water fight broke out (hope the front rows of the audience have dried off!) and sweets were thrown in a timeless panto scene! We wrapped up with a song for the audience to join in with (I apologise if Mum and I were too loud - we loved this!) which was extremely memorable and one of my favourite bits. Then we waved our glowsticks, fixed the clock and clapped until our hands hurt. There is never enough room to do justice to everyone but as Director Julia West reminded us at the end, this is a major ensemble effort featuring backstage cast members too. The scenery blows me away year after year with the detailing: and the sheep painters, sleigh makers, clock constructors and tree painters were just a few I need to mention. Overall, it was a delectable feast for the eyes!

Thank you, Launton Village Players!

Written by Holly Ford-Langstaff

There are photos from the show on pages 25, 26, 27 and 28, and on the front cover of this issue. Next month we hope to report on the amount raised for Nai’s House by Hickory Dickory Dock.