Aladdin

The Hall was full of excited children waiting for the Pantomime to start on this Friday afternoon. The stage curtains were closed, with a canopied seating area stage left, which turned out to be Abanazar’s Egyptian Lair. The Pantomime started with Abanazar in his Lair setting the story, but the audience were a little confused, as he appeared initially as a comic character with all his magic tricks going wrong, which made the audience laugh and then they were supposed to start booing him as the ‘baddy’.

There was an array of interesting sets with well-painted backcloths. The cave was particularly impressive; being able to see inside and then the way it opened for the interior was very well thought out and executed. There were mostly good lighting effects creating the correct atmospheres for the scenes. Sound effects and pyrotechnics were well handled and cued; but scene changes were slow at times. The show was well costumed with all the costumes fitting well, those of the ‘jewels’ and the finale were spectacular and of course, there was the array of unsuitable costumes always demanded for the Dame. The make up and hairstyles worked well, I must applaud Wishee Washee for dying his hair orange and the Genie of the Lamp for his chest wax.

The Band under the direction of Roger Winter were well balanced and kept a good pace. There was an interesting choice of songs, which appealed to all age ranges.  Although musically sound, sometimes the diction was poor, which was a pity because there were lovely solos, duets and chorus singing with good harmonies, and the a cappella rendition of Flashlight at the end was spellbinding but I did not hear a word of it.

Choreographers Natalie Britton and Kara Kennedy had worked well together to produce some lively, confident and interesting choreography, well within range of everyone. The opening numbers of both Acts and Celebration were particularly lively. Everyone had obviously been well rehearsed.

There were many strong performances throughout. After the early confusion Abanazar became thoroughly bad and had the audience booing, with the Spirit of the Ring well portrayed as the power of good. Aladdin was a thigh slapping principal boy who sang her songs well, and had a good rapport with Princess Mandarin. Wishee Washee was in his element encouraging the audience to shout out a slightly risqué response each time he came on and also holding things together when his ‘mum’ had some ‘senior moments’ with lines. Widow Twankey was a rather glamorous Dame, but a little over indulgent in the monologues, the children behind me quickly lost interest when she was on alone. The policemen Yu-Dun-Wong and Hu-Dun-Pong as the comedy duo, worked well and were very busy, but unfortunately with their thick accents and speed of delivery so many of their lines were lost and with them went the humour. Emperor of Peking was a pleasant fatherly figure but not a very commanding Emperor. Princess Mandarin and So-Shy were confident in their roles and gave lovely portrayals. Genie of the Lamp was very brave going bare chested, he gave a lovely ‘camp’ performance. The chorus reacted well and supported the principals throughout. The younger members of the company had been well disciplined, gave confident performances and added greatly to the show, with a lovely cameo role for the ‘shrunken’ Wishee Washee.

This is Emily Costa’s directorial debut and she ably guided her cast through all the complexities of the pantomime. The audience saw all the elements of pantomime the villain, good spirit, Dame, principal boy, comic duo, audience participation, colourful costumes, lively dances and songs that people recognise and local references. There were many clever jokes that were obviously aimed at the adults and the children did not understand, but this is in the hands of the scriptwriter. There were some nice touches and the children did enjoy the visual humour of ‘the chase’ to try to catch Aladdin, they chuckled for quite a while afterwards. I think most of the audience were happy as they left and enjoyed the opportunity of attending a local pantomime rather than going further afield.

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