The Chameleon Theatre Company of Chandler’s Ford recently staged a magical interpretation of J M Barrie’s Peter Pan for their annual pantomime directed by Gillian Wilkins.
Two years of planning paid off with full houses attending the 9 performances, which ran from Friday 24th of January to Saturday 1st of February 2014 at the Ritchie Hall, Hursley Road.
With royalties, donations and raffle proceeds, the pantomime raised around £750 for the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.
We Care: Special performance and free transport for the elderly
There were matinees staged especially for the children on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. There was also a special, free performance to an invited audience of the older and disabled residents of care homes from Chandler’s Ford.
Thanks to the generosity and support of Councillor Chris Greenwood (UKIP), County Councillor for Eastleigh (West), One Community buses were provided to collect these often-forgotten members of the local community.
G. V. Thomas, one of the audience attending the evening wrote a complimentary letter to The Daily Echo on behalf of the older residents who were able to enjoy a traditional evening’s entertainment at the panto.
“I would like to give a very big thank you to all the members of Chameleon Theatre Company, Chandler’s Ford. They put on a wonderful performance of Peter Pan and this year was a great success, definitely one of the best so far.”
“You gave a lot of senior citizens and disabled a lot of laughs and pleasure that evening.”
“Also, I would specially like to congratulate all the people who made and designed all the scenery and sky effects. Well done all of you.”
By G. V. THOMAS, Eastleigh, from The Daily Echo.
The audience were treated to the sight of Peter Pan (played by Naomi Scott) and Wendy (Lisa Dunbar) flying before their very eyes around Big Ben, over the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral and up through the stars to Neverland. The special effect remains a well-guarded secret!
With Wendy’s brothers John and Michael in tow, Peter Pan introduced them to her friends Tiger Lilly (Liz Strevens) and her Redskins and Tinkerbell (Kimberley James). The evil Captain Hook was played by David Wilkins – boo hiss! The cast were ably supported by the Lost Boys (children from local schools), with Captain Hook’s dopey pirate sidekicks Smee (Terry James) and Starkey (Wayne Bradshaw) getting lots of laughs.
You can enjoy some of those laughs now on this Youtube clip (15 minutes):
Who was Sexy Drawers?
Saturday evening’s final performance was attended by The Worshipful the Mayor of the Borough of Eastleigh Malcolm Cross and his wife. Sitting in the front row they attracted the attention of Captain Hook who was presented with a birthday card signed on behalf of the audience by The Mayor, who according to Captain Hook signed it “from Sexy Drawers”. “Oh no he didn’t . . . Oh yes he did!”
Next up for The Chameleons will be their annual Springtime programme of 3 One-Act comedies which will run from Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th of April 2014. Visit the Chameleons website and book early to avoid missing out on these increasingly well-supported performances.
I really love this post, Nick. It is heart-warming. It is wonderful to see how the elderly in our community are looked after and entertained. The video clip is full of funny moments. The Mayor clearly enjoyed the show! Thanks to all Chameleons’ hard work.
Wow – really sorry I missed this performance. I will keep an eye on the Chameleon’s website and hope to go to the one-act plays in April – I love this sort of thing!
Hello Hazel,
Thank you for your interest in our forthcoming productions.
Please let me have your email address and I will add you to our database. That way you will be kept up-to-date with all that we are doing and won’t miss out. We had to turn away loads of people who wanted tickets for the pantomime which is really disappointing for us especially as we added three extra performances to the normal run. The Ritchie Hall can only hold 100 people so if you subscribe to our newsletters you will receive an email informing you as soon as the box office is open to book your tickets as soon as they go on sale.
Hi Nick,
I’m sure Hazel and I will ‘hit the street’ together soon in Chandler’s Ford. We’ve been to a few local events together. Look forward to your new production in April.