Stourport's Civic pulls plug on panto after complaints

The Civic in Stourport has cancelled performances of Bewdley and the Beast: The Revenge of the Gilgal following an "unprecedented" number of complaints from last night's show (Thursday, December 28) and has offered refunds.

Following the performance, audience members took to social media to slam the show, with some branding it "awful."

On Facebook, Holly Davies, who left during the interval, said the show was "cringeworthy" and that "people were leaving ten minutes in."

She added that the performance started late, that there were sound and lighting issues and "no set design."

Another audience member, Stuart Hollis, described the show as "absolutely awful."

Sue Hancocks added: "It was awful we left halfway through".

Bewdley Town Criers were set to stage two more performances of their 'panto for grown-ups' today (Friday, December 29).

Director of the pantomime Paul Smith expressed his disappointment at the Civic's decision to pull the plug on the shows.

He told the Shuttle: "It's an adult-themed pantomime and it's our third one, with the same sort of story and same cast.

"We are an amateur group. It's a bit like 'The Play That Goes Wrong' in many ways.

"I feel for the cast and everyone who was part of it. The cast and crew all put a lot of hard work into it.

"This is not Birmingham Hippodrome, we work with what we've got.

"A select few didn't like it. There were major problems with the technical side of things.

"The majority of the crowd were having a great time".

The Civic announced that they would be cancelling the remaining shows this morning.

In a statement on Facebook, they said: "The Civic has taken the unusual and extraordinary step to cancel the remaining performances of Freddie Just presents "Bewdley and The Beast 3" later today.

"This is due to the unprecedented number of complaints and requests for refunds that we have received in the last 12 hours. We will be responding to each complaint individually, but it's going to take a while.

"We will be issuing full refunds to all ticket holders including those from last night's performance.

"These refunds will be administered by our online ticket provider Ticketsource over the coming days.

"If you paid in cash at The Civic Box Office, please email info@thecivicstourport.co.uk with your bank details and we will arrange for payments to be made.

"The Civic are sorry for any inconvenience and upset this has caused."