There is a certain challenging quality with pantomime matinees that you don’t find anywhere else – the audience are nearly always noisy!

However, this is surely what traditional pantomime is all about – drawing communities together while giving the youngest audience members their first taste of live theatre – and most of the conversations showed they were paying rapt attention to proceedings!

The cast coped admirably (despite some of the quieter voices being overwhelmed by the hubbub) and Sleeping Beauty (under the guidance of new director, Sharon Jones) proved to be community theatre at its best.

Ani Lisby was a spirited, charismatic Princess Aurora, while Alison Edmondson (her adopted brother, Jack) and the Marks (Rogers and Appleby, the wicked Fairy Queen’s henchmen) enjoyed a great rapport with the audience, Ian Gardner made a panto Dame of the finest calibre and Chris Orriss brought a touch of Lord Flashheart to Prince Frederick.

Good old-fashioned family entertainment!

Anne Waggott