A peach of a show from Players

WHAT a wonderful experience it was to watch James and The Giant Peach at Hitchin s Queen Mother Theatre. I had forgotten what a lovely place it was, even better now that drinks (plastic glasses) are allowed to be taken into the show! I am not a great Roa

WHAT a wonderful experience it was to watch James and The Giant Peach at Hitchin's Queen Mother Theatre. I had forgotten what a lovely place it was, even better now that drinks (plastic glasses) are allowed to be taken into the show!

I am not a great Roald Dahl fan, indeed I find some of his books quite weird, but this performance by the Bancroft Players certainly entertained me. The use of shadow cut outs and puppetry at the beginning was simple yet fun, and appealing to the youngsters.

Narrated by Alison Hudson, the story took us into the tormented world of orphan James Trotter, (brilliantly played by David Johnson) now living with his spiteful aunts, Spiker (Alison Hancock) and Sponge (Vivien Kerr). They were a good comedy duo each considering themselves beautiful - but only on a dark night!

James escapes to a fantasy world in a giant peach already inhabited by five creatures. He meets the dark, sensual spider (Kate Rallison), a very droll earthworm (Ian Mutton), a stompy centipede always fussing with her many shoes (Janet Turner), a gorgeous ladybird (Carrie Jarman) and a foreign grasshopper (Liz Pybus), all great performances. Together they cross the Atlantic, landing on The Empire State Building.

There were delightful scenes with seagulls and sharks, wafting waves and snow showers, beautiful songs and the most impressive costumes. I enjoyed the music immensely (Jayne Mason). My only concern was the difficulty in hearing some of the singing. Congratulations to all involved.

Maureen Millard