Aladdin

Well, the time-honoured tradition of pantomime is well and truly alive in Wales having been to see three already this month! It was wonderful to be invited to see Glatawe’s Aladdin and it was also wonderful to see a large and very appreciative audience.

We were treated to a lovely set, some great costumes and I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and focus of the ensemble. The choreography was good as was the singing in the company numbers.

The principals were well-cast and I was delighted to see the tradition of ‘principal boy’ being played by a young lady being upheld. So many pantomimes now do away with this tradition but Leah Hopkins played the role beautifully and demonstrated a fine voice. Heather Rees was a lovely Jasmine and Russell Rees was a suitably ‘cheeky-chappy’ Wishy Washy. Lee Bentley gave us a great villain as Abanaza with boos and hisses abounding, and Aaron Jones was a good Genie. Telyn Evans opened the show as the Good Fairy with a lovely song and Catrin Rees played Sanjita well.

There was some great comedy in the show and mention must go to Tim Barrell as the Emperor and Edwina Davies as his fan-wielding, nasally-challenged Empress, Anthony Evans for a great Widow Twanky with just the right amount of double-entendre (I often feel that pantomimes today have far too much ‘adult’ humour which this company sensibly turned away from). Special mention must go to the team of Heidi Marie James and William Walters as Kung and Poo, the police officers. Unfortunately Lowri Paynter, who should have been playing Poo, was unable to do so and William Walters stepped into the role, and what hilarity he brought to the stage. The audience were falling about laughing on a number of occasions when these two were on stage, but particularly in the ‘chocolate bar’ scene which was comedy gold.

Congratulations to the entire company and I look forward to their next production.

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