Sleeping Beauty a great day out

It’s never an easy panto to put on, but these players tackled the tricky 100 years of sleeping shenanigans with clever plot twists, riotous slapstick comedy sketches and more songs and dances than you could prick with a cursed needle.

Leading the singing stakes in the titular role, is the delightful Fiona Gallagher, whose duet of “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” with Ariana’s pal Isobel (Julie Craig) a superb highlight.

She’s joined by Kevin Gallagher as the Prince Regent, who falls in love with her before he knows she’s the princess he was supposed to be in the frame to marry, which suited Ariana as she wanted her man to love her for who she was, not because she was royalty.

Confused yet?

But there’s more.

A panto isn’t a panto without someone to boo at, and this is provided brilliantly by Sandra Oliver’s Sleezyana, a petty witch with a penchant for cursing wee baby girls. Her maniacal laugh, which accompanies her every entrance, along with a hand holding a Boo card, of course, is chilling to the extreme. Of course, her curse does actually work as she hoped and Ariana is doomed to a century of sleeping.

The comedy comes from Selkirk’s answer to the Chuckle Brothers, Graham Coulson and John Nichol as the fantastically-named Sir Cumference and Sir Tiffykit.

Their many antics include several swipes at neighbouring Galashiels (Where is Gala? It’s just beyond Tesco), a rather cheeky dig at former Southern boss John Smail’s accent and a hilarious wallpaper hanging skit which had the audience in stitches.

Doubling up the comedic duos were Derek Brown and Jim Terras as the Snoof Twins, commited to making everything all right in the long run.

There were plenty of other successes to sing about, with Anne Nicol’s Crystabel opening up proceedings with an eye-opening performance of “Morning Has Broken”. There’s plenty of young talent coming through the ranks, as well, with Ross Squance and Anna Fernie acting rather regally as King Cuthbert and Queen Ludicrous, while Eireann Quinn’s forgetful Nurse Nappy Pin giving the audience something else to shout out and Peter Nicol’s Prime Minister with the worst hairdo since Boris keeping the story chugging along.

There’s a few surprises along the way, with town councillor Caroline Cochrane treading the boards as Feather Duster and Bill Drew showing he’s got a grand pair of lungs as Captain Reliant, and even a plot-hole-swerving Tommy Combe as a certain telly physician with a magic time-travelling blue box.

Each scene change was filled by the very talented chorus and a large group of singing and dancing children providing many a popular tune. And, of course, the audience got a go as well, with the kids coming on stage to sing a bit of “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”.

In all, it was a triumph for all, with Graham Coulson’s direction and Ian Wilkie looking after the music, we're hoping it's too long until the next one!