Sleeping Beauty St Paul’s Players, Adlington Community Centre, Railway Road, Adlington. Tonight and Saturday.

SLEEPING Beauty is a classic pantomime story – a good tale with lots of laughs.

St Paul’s Players have clearly put lots of effort into the show - with plenty of great performances, oodles of singing and dancing and amazing sets.

At the christening of Princess Rose, daughter of King Cactus and Queen Marigold, fairies bestow gifts but the evil Wizbad, not happy when he does not receive an invite, curses the baby.

He says that before she is 18, Rose will prick her finger and die.

Good Fairy Lilac cannot reverse the spell but changes it so that she will sleep for a hundred years, being woken by a prince’s kiss.

A lot of thought has gone into the production, with great use of modern songs, complex dance routines and cringe-worthy jokes in true panto spirit!

There was all the usual banter, with plenty of audience interaction – as much from the adults as the children.

Lily Blundell, who played Princess Rose, and Kirsty Garlick, Prince Alexis and Prince Alexander, shone. Graham Cohen was hilarious as Nurse Dottie Dettol, and was definitely the star of the show.

A special congratulations must go to all the dancers and singers, who pulled out all the stops.

There was a massive effort from everyone involved – a great bit of festive fun for all the family.

Cherry Thomas