Jack and the Beanstalk

A pantomime by Peter Webster
Friday 25 January 2013 - Saturday 26 January 2013
& Friday 1 February 2013 - Saturday 2 February 2013
Faringdon Junior School, 26 Gloucester Street, Faringdon SN7 7HY
Directed by Peter Webster
Producer: Sandra Keen
Musical Director: Debra Warner

Performances start 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm. Doors open 30 minutes earlier. Each performance lasts approximately 2½ hours. Matinées on Saturdays only.
Tickets: Adult £8. Child (under 16) £6. No concessions.
Tickets were available from our Online Box Office and The Nut Tree, 2 Cornmarket, Faringdon.

Winner of the Oxfordshire Drama Network Pantomime Competition 2013

Dolly and her son, Jack, cannot compete with Farmer Fussbudget when it comes to business and worse still, he is their landlord. They have no money to pay the rent and are down to one cow – Magnesia. They have no option but to sell her to raise some money or they face being evicted. Jack and Fussbudget’s daughter Florence plan to marry but at present this is out of the question, due to lack of cash and Fussbudget’s objection to Jack.

Jack is given the job of taking Magnesia to market and making the sale. On the way he meets Wiseacre the magician who persuades Jack to swop Magnesia for a bag of magic beans. This does not go down well when Jack gets home, confirming everyone’s low opinion of Jack, and provoking Dolly to throw the beans away.

In the meantime we have met the Ogre who is wondering why there is not more meaning in his life; his unwilling servants suggest that marriage might be the answer – but to whom is the unanswered question.

Of course, the beanstalk grows, but before it is to be chopped down Florence climbs it being the adventurous one. All she finds at the top of the beanstalk is the Ogre’s lair; she is captured by Drudge and Dogsbody, the Ogre’s henchmen, and taken to him. The Ogre sees her as his bride, but Florence refuses and is left under guard by Drudge and Dogsbody to consider her options, which don’t look good. In the meantime Jack has plucked up his courage to go and look for her. He tricks Drudge and Dogsbody into letting her go and she and Jack escape back down the beanstalk.

Having got back to earth, Jack resolves to return to the Ogre’s lair to steal the Ogre’s gold and also to do the right thing in freeing the Ogre’s servants and the hen and chicks. But first he determines to buy back Magnesia and to recruit Wiseacre to the cause.

The rest deals with the rescue and what happens when the Ogre pursues them back down the beanstalk. Of course, all ends happily.

To read more or purchase the script visit the PetePanto.co.uk website.

This version of Jack and the Beanstalk was originally produced by FDS in 1988.

More info? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk

Photographs by Paul Mountford-Lister