Dick Whittington

Dick Whittington
and his cat — the tale as recorded by Fred Chaucer

To order scripts ISBN 978-1-873855-43-0 – Cast List – Scenes – Extract – Notes – Production photos

Introduction

A pantomime written in a traditional style, but at the same time refreshingly different, Dick Whittington treats your cast to some well made characters and dialogue, and conspires to involve your audience to the maximum.

There are many opportunities for song and dance, including some suggested titles, and plenty of scope for including an undefined number of senior and junior chorus members in the show.

Principals: 16, plus 4 chorus with speaking parts; many characters could be played by either gender – be inventive! Puss is non-speaking but needs good acting.

Cast List . . .

Dick Whittington, a poor boy from Gloucester (principal boy)
Puss, a curious and cultivated cat
Alderman Fitzwarren, wealthy London merchant
Alice Fitzwarren, his daughter (principal girl)
Sally Forth, the Alderman's Cook (dame)
Madame Lilywhite, owner of a local emporium
Claud Everley, Madame Lilywhite's chief buyer
Jasper de Mauditt, son of Alderman Emile de Mauditt
Captain Carwash, of the good ship 'Guzunda'
Boatswain Jangles, of the same good ship
Roger, their cabin boy
Fred Chaucer, Geoffrey's less-talented brother
The Sultan, a monarch in Morocco
The Sultana, his currant wife
Aziz, the Sultan's Vizir
King Rat, scourge of the Sultan
Roland Rat, a second-rate rat
Ronald Rat, a third-rate rat
Junior chorus of street urchins, rats, kittens, etc
Senior chorus of townspeople, traders, sailors, Moroccans, etc

List of Scenes . . .

Act I

The Prologue - Dick the vagabond (Front of Tabs)
Scene 1 - A street in London (Full Set)
Scene 2 - Up an alley in London (Front of Tabs)
Scene 3 - Near to the Docks (Half set)
Scene 4 - At the Docks (Full Set)
Scene 5 - A street in London (Front of Tabs)
Scene 6 - In Alderman Fitzwarren's offices (Full Set)
Scene 7 - On Highgate Hill (Front of Tabs)
Scene 8 - At the Docks (Full Set)

**** INTERVAL ****
Act II
The Interlogue - Alderman Fitzwarren explains (Front of Tabs)
Scene 1 - A port in Morocco (Full Set)
Scene 2 - In a Moroccan alley (Front of Tabs)
Scene 3 - On the voyage home (Half set)
Scene 4 - Back in Alderman Fitzwarren's office (Full Set)
Scene 5 - Preparing for a wedding (Front of Tabs)
Scene 6 - The rats return! + Community Song (Front of Tabs)
Scene 7 - The wedding procession through London (Full Set)

Extract from Act I Scene 8

Fitzwarren Then I'll wish you bon voyage, captain, and look forward to seeing you when you come home laden with the wealth of Barbary.
(He exits SL)
Jangles Bon is French for good.
Carwash I do know that, Bo Jangles – and laden is English for full up. Only trouble is, he's given us no money to buy stuff once we get there.
Jangles What are we going for then?
Carwash It's in the script.
Jangles Is that a good enough reason?
Carwash Unless you can find a better author it is.
(Enter SL Fred Chaucer and Sally Forth)
Fred Did I hear someone call for a better author?
Carwash You did. Where's your brother?
Fred Oh, you know how to wound!
Sally Geoffrey's busy writing 'Carry on Telling Tales' or some such nonsense right now. But Fred is free, aren't you dear, and definitely improving.
Carwash Well the first thing you can do is to write me in a full crew. So far there's only three of us.
Sally Five, if Fred and I come along.
Jangles I'm having no women on board – it brings bad luck.
Sally Look again, sailor! (S/he is the Dame, remember)
Jangles On second thoughts, we could do with a good cook.
Sally Good. Come on Freddie – let's see if there's a nice warm cabin.
Fred Did I just write that in? Oh help!
(Sally ushers Fred to exit SR)

Producer's Notes

This pantomime uses four different full set scenes, separated by half set or front of curtain scenes to allow for backstage activity.

Directions are suggested, but use your imagination according to the facilities available to you.

A list of suggested songs is included for your guidance, and where special words were written these are also included, but feel free to adapt or adopt your own as required.

The concept of the Community Song is where the audience is invited to come up on the stage to help out, and some sort of raucous competition ensues between those brave enough to come up and those left sitting in the auditorium. ("Invited" is perhaps a little inaccurate on occasions, when members of the cast go down in search of friends and other victims!). The positioning of this event just before the final scene also gives people not involved plenty of time to change into their finery for the Walkdown.

I have introduced the concept of a Prologue and an Interlogue (no, the latter is not in the dictionary) as much as anything to give time for the chorus to react to the fact that the show has started, and actually get on stage! This is known as pragmatism.

So good luck with your show. Put in local variations as you wish, and if you think you can improve on the verse then do that too! Have fun – otherwise, why do it?

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