December, 2002
The Dragon's Tale

The Cast
(in order of appearance)

Mrs Tibbiwell..............................................Jackie Herbert
Widow Twinkle.............................................Pauline Wood
Mrs Doorpost....................................................Avril Dorey
The Shoemaker..............................................Andrew Leach
Princess Inflagrante........................................Jean Burgess
King Smead-the-Good.........................Benedict Kolczynski
Count Scrofula-the-Bad...................................Mike Breeze
Countess Scrofula-the-Badder.....................Susanna Davis
Dunfer Malpractice...........................................John Cross
Prince Eric...............................................Michael Jackson
Upper Washwell, a dim guard........................Kevin Parker
Lower Washwell, an even dimmer guard.......Jack Burgess
Phineas Frog....................................................Sophie Allen
Prince Lustin-the-Likely..................................Lynn Gibson
Princess Fenella.............................................Ellie Jackson
The Dragon...............................................Lesley Wolowiec
Citizens and Ghoulies..............Keith Young, Jan Campbell
Liz Fisher, Chrissy Stephenson-Oliver,
George & William Jackson,
Ken Kipraver, Jeb Grussack

The Production Team

Director..................................................Lesley Wolowiec
Assistant Director.........................................Jack Burgess
Choreography.............................................Sara Harwood
Musical direction.........Stephen Lea with Robert Burgess
Technical co-ordination & Lighting.........Jacek Wolowiec
Stage and Set......................Russell Herbert, Tony Gibson
Stage Manager............................................Jackie Herbert
Prompt.............................................................Avril Dorey
Costumes...................................Ann Dorman, Pat Francis
Make-up........................................................Lynn Gibson
Publicity team.......................Jack Burgess, Kevin Parker
Ticket sales........................................................Liz Fisher
Front-of-house team........................Naomi & Craig Dunn,
John Stephenson-Oliver, Gill & Tim Cox, Elaine Leach

In writing The Dragon's Tale, Jack Burgess has drawn inspiration from - OK, OK, pinched gags from - most of the great comic writers of the last few hundred years. Amongst those whose work he admits to having pillaged for this production were Oscar Wilde, Groucho Marx, Morecambe and Wise, Ben Elton, W C Fields, Rowan Atkinson, Spike Milligan, Monty Python and William Shakespeare. Value for money, or what?

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Lesley Wolowiec (top left) oversees rehearsals

Performance pictures: the opening scene

Phineas Frog, Prince Eric, Princess Inflagrante, the Scrofulas and two (very) dim guards

Things look black for Prince Lustin, the Shoemaker, Widow Twinkle and the Princess...

...but all's well in the end and all live happily ever after. Even the dragon!

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Programme note: The story of The Dragon's Tale...

Despite a history of 114 productions over 80 years, this is our first Christmas panto. The Dragon's Tale started life on May 11th at 11.15 pm during the after-show party celebrating our much acclaimed (by us, anyway) production of Stepping Out! This was the production, you may recall, for which the cast had had to learn to tap-dance.

'Let's do a panto next!' said someone with the visionary flourish, which only our infamous stock of cheap Hungarian Red can inspire.
'Let's do something else with tap dancing!' cried another, just failing to prove that it is possible tap dance whilst carrying a full bottle of the said red.
'Let's do a panto with tap dancing!' proclaimed yet another, nimbly dodging the resulting shower of plonk.

All turned in awe towards Lesley Wolowiec (for 'twas she).

'Let's write our own panto with tap dancing.' She explained. 'We could base it on something like the Elves and the Shoemaker and put in a few twists. The shoes that the Shoemaker makes could be magic shoes that make you tap dance. And we can set it all in Much Tapping -on-the-Toe. And we can have a Good King and a Bad Baron and a beautiful Princess and handsome Prince. And a Dragon... and ... and... Well, anyway: that's the plot. I'll direct it and you can write it!'

She finished triumphantly pointing towards Jack Burgess, who absent-mindedly nodded in unwitting agreement as he pondered the long-term effect of being drenched in cheap Hungarian Red and what Saddam Hussein might do if he ever got his hands on a stockpile of it.

And so, over the summer of 2002, the embryonic plot took shape, sprouting dozens of sub-plots in the process. Actually, the characters tended to appear before the plot: The Shoemaker, Widow Twinkle, Good King Smead, Princess Inflagrante, the bad Count Scrofula, the unspeakable Dunfer Malpractice - all were there before there was much plot them to do anything in. As was Prince Lustin-the-Likely (although his thighs came along later!) Others - the even badder Countess Scrofula, Prince Eric, Mrs Tibbiwell etc - emerged as the story lines developed. Phineas Frog started life as a mouse and was meant to be no more than a convenient plot device linking two scenes. He turned into a frog merely to accommodate one awful gag and then, like many of the characters, just seemed to take on a life of his own.

By the time of the auditions in September, The Dragon's Tale was more or less completed: more (according to Jack), less (according to Lesley). However, it still had no name except for the working title of... The Painswick Players Christmas Panto (or PPXP, for short). Various combinations of Magic Shoes/ Shoemakers/ Dragons etc were tried before the antics of the dragon trying to get into costume during one rehearsal inspired the following exchange:

'It's behind you!'
'What is?'
'The dragon's tail!'

The rest, as they say, is history.

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The Dragon's Tale reviewed: Painswick Beacon, January 2003

The inclement turn to the weather in the first week of December made a pantomime in Painswick feel just right - after all nobody goes to a pantomime except in winter, do they? But while outside it may have been cold, inside the audience was quickly warmed by the liveliness and delight of the production which the Painswick Players gave us, as their latest triumph of ingenuity, hard work and dedication to entertainment.
First of all congratulations must go to Jack Burgess for his imaginative and funny script - we had a pantomime with all the usual elements - the wicked uncle, the stupid son, the lovely princess, the buffoons and the principal boy with the magic thigh, lots of magic in fact and a host of characters to tell the tale. As we learned from the programme, the inspiration for the story came from the tap dancing which had been learned for the brilliant production of "Stepping Out"; so there it was - magic shoes which made the wearer tap dance!
The players included 'old' faces and new ones and all made up a great team. It seems unfair to pick out individuals because everyone added so much and director Lesley Wolowiec is to be congratulated on the production but Jean Burgess's Princess Inflagrante was particularly winsome and the inadequate but oh so kindly Prince Eric was very sensitively portrayed by Mike Jackson. The singing of Susanna Davis, playing the horrible Countess Scrofula, was beautiful and it is to be hoped that there will be more opportunities in the future to hear her again. It was good to see two young people - Sophie Allen and Ellie Jackson - making a great contribution to the team as Phineas Frog alias Princess Fenella.
The costumes and the set gave it a real traditional panto feel, with an excellent backdrop of 'Much Tapping-on-the-Toe'. Can't think where they got that idea from! Eleven scene changes can be a nightmare but the stage crew coped admirably - perhaps recent investment back-stage helped! Lighting and effects were up to the usual high standard, including a chair which lit up - I could have sworn that red dragon was a Welsh one!
Live music, lots to join in with and plenty of hissing and booing at the effectively horrible Scrofulas, as well as the usual 'oh yes it is - oh no it isnt' routines allowed the older ones among us to shed a few years. So from an appreciative audience and from one member who shall be nameless but who has been heard to say that pantomime is for others - Well Done, PPs!

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