Dick Whittington
Written by Trevor Nicol
Written by Trevor Nicol
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A message from our panto writer, Trevor Nicol:
‘Dick Whittington’ was my third panto, written in 1994 and revived in 2014. The plot of this panto is fairly well known and I didn’t really tinker much with it. Dick is a young lad who leaves his home in the country to travel to London in order to seek his fortune. He meets Charlie the Super Cat along the way, who befriends him, but unfortunately to begin with Dick’s attempts at seeking his fortune don’t work out for him and he decides to go home. On the road back he falls asleep and has a vision of himself as Lord Mayor of London and this persuades him to return to London in order to try again. Once there he meets Alderman Fitzwarren, his daughter Alice, Sara the Cook and Idle Jack. It’s found that Fitzwarren has a terrible rat infestation problem in his Emporium and as Charlie happens to be good at catching rats, Dick and his cat are therefore hired on the spot. These characters are all well-known traditional figures, but we mustn’t forget it also includes one of the great panto villains King Rat. He of course engineers the dismissal of Dick from Fitzwarren’s service in order to get rid of Charlie so that his rat minions can go back to running riot in the Emporium. Dick and Charlie decide to run away to sea. |
We then have the introduction of Captain Cockle and his useless sidekick Mr Mussel the First Mate (“Mr Mussel….loves the jobs you hate!”), as well as a group of female pirates too, who all add to the chaos. All of my pantos were originally written in long hand first before ending up in printed form. I find the story flows better from the pen, and my typing skills are such that my fingers probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with my brain…!
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Production Staff
Director: Nicholas Nicol
Musical Director: Mairi MacKenzie Choreographer: Claire Fisher Costume: Cynthia Nicol Sound: Alan MacKintosh Lighting: David Russell Property Manager: Janet Russell Set Construction and Stage Crew: Gregor Fisher; Steven Kelly; Andy Thursby; Samantha Jackson Set Design: Claire Cameron; Nicholas Nicol Poster and Programme: Graham Eden Script: Trevor Nicol |
Cast
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Dick Whittington in the News
Dick Whittington Audience Feedback
"Well done everyone. The panto was brilliant tonight."
"Well done to all cast and crew! Went along to the matinee performance this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. Incredible effort by each and everyone of you to put on such a great show in such a short space of time! Loved it! Have fun throughout the rest of the show guys! Hugs all round!"
"Fabulous Panto at The Florians, thanks for a great night! From The Thurso Groupies. Even won a raffle prize!"
"Fantastic show last night. Thank you. My face was sore with laughing so much. Thank you very much too for reading out my congratulations to our friend Sandra who has her 80th birthday this month. She had never been to the Florians before but is now a fan."
"Well done everyone tonight. Really enjoyed it! Loved being a part of it - sorry I couldn't devote more time to it. You are a great bunch. Thanks for the orchid - I will follow the watering instructions carefully!"
"Well done to all cast and crew! Went along to the matinee performance this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed it. Incredible effort by each and everyone of you to put on such a great show in such a short space of time! Loved it! Have fun throughout the rest of the show guys! Hugs all round!"
"Fabulous Panto at The Florians, thanks for a great night! From The Thurso Groupies. Even won a raffle prize!"
"Fantastic show last night. Thank you. My face was sore with laughing so much. Thank you very much too for reading out my congratulations to our friend Sandra who has her 80th birthday this month. She had never been to the Florians before but is now a fan."
"Well done everyone tonight. Really enjoyed it! Loved being a part of it - sorry I couldn't devote more time to it. You are a great bunch. Thanks for the orchid - I will follow the watering instructions carefully!"