Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society serves up another classic panto with SHwREK'd

Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society served up a sumptuous feast of theatrical song, dance and comedy high jinks in its annual pantomime - SHwREK’d - that finished its five-day run at the Strand Theatre on Sunday.

This was the third original Carrick MS panto co-written by husband and wife team Sandra and Conor Power. The duo must take a bow for their latest creation that boasted all the ingredients of a classic panto.

They included an eclectic line up of songs from Christy Moore’s Don’t Forget Your Shovel and classic pop songs like Video Killed the Radio Star and Eye of The Tiger to musical theatre hits like High School Musical and Bad Guys from Bugsy Malone.

The tightly written and topical plot was loosely based on the famous animated character Shrek and set in the town swamp of a mythical version of Carrick-on-Suir with the hero and his family battling to save their home from evil developer Lord Farquadd, a miniature farting Donald Trump style baddie.

Hats off to the script writers for including a neurodiverse character in the cast and a story line that emphasised it’s okay to be different.

Ger Breen’s Lord Farquadd was among a deliciously evil band of baddies that also included Maria Rayner as the Fairy Godmother and Niamh Healy as evil sister Delilah.

And there was an impressive line-up of comic characters with James Dooley hilariously reprising his role as the panto dame, Princess Fiona, alongside Bobby Landers as Puss In Boots, Caolán Deehy-Power as Donkey and Declan Smith-Robinson as Shrek.

An annual highlight of the Carrick panto are the performances of the Musical Society’s young Academy of Performing Arts members. They once again shone on stage in SHwREK’d.

There were beautiful solo singing performances from Musical Society rising stars Áine Fitzgerald and Shaunie Byrne who played two of Shrek’s children Felicia and Fergie.

Artist Tony Oakey deserves great praise for the gorgeous set as do the show’s make-up artists for their work on the Shrek family and other leading cast members.

Check out more photos from the pantomime in this week's edition of The Nationalist now on sale in local shops. 

Pictured below: Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society Academy of Performing Arts members performing in SHwREK'd