Home Truths
Beauty and the Beast
by Alan McHugh, additional material by Pete Firman
Crosswords Pantomimes at Richmond Theatre until 5th January
Review by Mark Aspen
Take an old story, preferably one with a beautiful heroine and a handsome hero, and a big bad villain, add lots of colour, lots of music, a dash of slapstick and plenty of jokes, and you have a pantomime. Then you need a dame and a name, a hapless comic for our sympathy (ahHr!) and a fairy spirit for our mystery (ooH!) and you have a traditional pantomime. Add in more music, more colour, lots of lights and bangs and flashes, and great dance and special effects and you have a Crossroads pantomime.
Beauty and the Beast is an old story, put together in 1740, from very old stories, by a pair of French ladies-who-lunch at the royal court (no, not the theatre) to amuse the Sun King. But, as we know, it is “a tale as old as time”.
Read more…Laugh? You Sher Wood
Robin Hood
by Jack Counsel
Yvonne Arnaud Productions, at the Yvonne Arnold Theatre, Guildford until 5th January
Review by Heather Moulson
With an opening scene in Sherwood Forest akin to the Pet Shop Boys production at the Royal Opera House, there is as much smoke and mystery and dazzling lighting as you would expect from a big panto. A polished prologue leads the way into this vibrant production of Robin Hood, directed by Joanna Read who does full justice to its witty script.
Read more…Unto Us
Messiah
by George Frederic Handel, libretto by Charles Jennens from The Bible and the Prayer Book Psalter
Wild Arts at the Smith Square Hall, Westminster, 7th December, then on tour until 19th December
Review by Mark Aspen
Now, here is a Messiah that speaks. Handel’s most popular work, and traditional seasonal staple, has a habit of being a spectacle that shouts or a recital that whispers. But when Handel, in a frenetic three weeks and three days in the summer of 1741, wrote this towering oratorio, the quarter of a million notes that burst from his pen were a statement of his own faith in the divine, spoken to his fellow human beings.
Read more…Stand and Deliver
Robin Hood and the Christmas Heist
by Chris Bush
Rose Original with the Rose Youth Theatre at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until 5th January
Review by Viola Selby
It’s that time of year again! Oh no it’s not! Oh yes it is! The time where we get to sit through panto after panto, often overly hammed up and saturated with forced jokes, feathers and sequins. Well, all I can say is thank Santa for Chris Bush’s incredible writing, brought to life by director Elin Schofield! Robin Hood and the Christmas Heistis a play that not only encapsulates the very heart of Christmas in such a natural yet surprising way, but is filled with so many twists and turns, that it takes the audience on an emotional Sleigh Ride!
Read more…Ice Breaker
The Snow Queen
by Hans Christian Andersen, adapted by Anna Wheatley
Reading Rep Theatre, Reading until 31st December
Review by Sam Martin
Anna Wheatley’s The Snow Queen is a whimsical and heartfelt adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale, bringing its fantastical elements to life with charm, depth, and an engaging performance by a talented ensemble cast. The skilled team at Reading Rep, directed by Paul Stacey, have infused new life into the familiar story and created a captivating experience for the audience.
Set in a world of snow and magic, The Snow Queen follows the journey of Gerda as she embarks on a perilous adventure to rescue her friend Kai from the clutches of the Snow Queen, who has cast him under a powerful spell. The narrative’s universal themes of love, bravery, and friendship come to the fore, and Wheatley’s adaptation does an excellent job of breathing emotional depth into the characters, making them relatable and accessible.
Read more…Girls Behaving Gladly
The Scummy Mummies Greatest Hits
by Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn
Scummy Mummies at the Exchange Theatre, Twickenham until 4th December, then on tour until 19th December
Review by Heather Moulson
I’d heard great things about this prolific comedy duo, who run a successful podcast as well as extensively touring, and I was curious to see them ‘in the flesh’. And I did, quite literally, as their tight revealing cat-suits made a striking first impression.
Unsurprisingly, the audience predominately consisted of school mothers and PTA members. However, I thought I’d come to Jerry Springer or The Fully Monty by mistake, as big parties of women were very raucous indeed. True, school motherhood had ended for me some time ago, but this was not how I remembered Twickenham parents! They exceeded the adage of letting their hair down on a rare night out.
Read more…Skill and Top Tones
The Pirates of Penzance
by W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan
The English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 21st February
Review by Brent Muirhouse
It may have been a chilly December evening outside to shiver my bones, but inside it was me timbers a-shivering as the Coliseum, alive with colour and chaos, and the English National Opera brought the nautical nonsensical Pirates of Penzance to tread these hallowed boards.
Far from the perils of walking the plank, Gilbert and Sullivan’s tale was a genuinely buoyant pantomime of vivacity, of absurdity, and of life. Much like the so-called “topsy-turvydom” extolled in the programme notes, the production leaned wholeheartedly into the comic incongruities of Gilbert’s writing, delivering a high-energy romp that was as dazzling visually as it was musically enthralling, balancing an almost festive frivolity with musical mastery.
Read more…Social Climbing
Jack and the Beanstalk
by Loz Keal
Teddington Theatre Club at Hampton Hill Theatre until 8th December
Review by Thea Diamond
The festive season has well and truly arrived on the southside of Richmond upon Thames. On Thursday, we had the Teddington Christmas Lights Up; on Friday, the Hampton Hill Christmas Parade; on Sunday, the Hampton Village Christmas Event, and sandwiched between, the opening of TTC’s traditional family pantomime. And what a traditional, not to be missed panto director Josh Clarke has delivered!
We were treated to all the time-honoured ingredients, including booing at the baddies; the scary bear in the woods scene, and we even had ‘If I were not upon the stage’, the first time this seasoned panto critic has witnessed this fun and anarchic routine in an amateur production. And well done … you guys completely smashed it (figuratively, I might add, not literally)!
Read more…Nut Shatter
Carlos Acosta’s Nutcracker in Havana
by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, arranged by Pepe Gavilondo Peón, further augmented by Yasel Muñoz
Norwich Theatre and Valid Productions for Acosta Danza at Richmond Theatre until 27th November, then on tour until 28th January
Review by Mark Aspen
A December outing to the see much-loved Nutcracker is much a part of Christmas as mince pies and brandy butter. White tutu-ed ballerinas, white snow, Sugar Plum fairies all spring to mind, and the sounds of a full orchestra’s soaring but hummable music are Christmas ear-worms. That’s Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, yes?
Now, bring in that doyen of the ballet world, Carlos Acosta CBE, matured in The Royal Ballet, and one can expect a superb chocolate-box traditional ballet, yes?
NO! Carlos Acosta brings in his native Cuba to the confection, where waltzes can dissolve into congas, ballet shoes can be over-shod with wooden flip-flops, and those soaring strings play alongside claves and saxophones. The purist might expect a mash-up.
Read more…Humbug Humalong
What the Dickens?
by Clare Norburn
The Telling at The OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 30th November, then on tour until 8th December
Review by Brent Muirhouse
What The Dickens? begins in the shadowy ambiance of a sparse stage at the OSO Arts Centre on a cold London night, appropriately evoking a ripple of the timeless setting of A Christmas Carol, in this theatre on the banks of Barnes Pond. Clive Hayward’s Charles Dickens steps forward, marching to his spot, ostensibly to deliver a reading of his festive classic. However, it soon becomes clear that the audience is not simply in for a methodical retelling of Ebenezer Scrooge’s redemption, since Dickens finds himself written into the role of protagonist, as the performance delves into his personal story – whether he consents to it or not. Clare Norburn’s play then exists as a sort of meta narrative arc reserved more commonly for dystopian science fiction. For the sake of a pun, if it were a century later, it would be Philip K. Dickens.
Mark Aspen 