Review – Beccles and Bungay Journal – Jan 1986
Evening of chaotic fun
Panto time at Loddon opened in side splitting fashion on Friday night.
“Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” is Loddon Panto Players 11th offering and I doubt the previous 10 could have been much funnier.
For the whole show gives a wonderful impression of vaguely organized chaos as characters work their way through the traditional plot.
The whole thing Is held together by Maureen Larkin – from her timing and style, no doubt a panto veteran – who, as the colorful Ruby Monger is the linchpin of much of the humour.
Her foil is the traditional panto dame played by Derek Lloyd, making a return to the players after a two-year break.
The two mould together well as characters within the central plot and as the source of many of the usual panto sketches.
Mention too should go to the wolf – not a ferocious snarling beast, but a gentle excellent “grit old sorft dog” which wouldn’t frighten even the smallest child.
Red Riding Hood is enchantingly played by young Nicola Constable and her mother by the pantomimes producer Joan Evans.
Any first night slip-ups were superbly hidden by swift ad-libbing and if anything, they added to what was a genuinely funny production.
