Aladdin

The annual BATS pantomime comes round again and this year in a splendid new venue, Biggleswade Academy. Apart from the change of venue this was once again BATS giving us the full-on traditional Christmas panto with all the required ingredients. As it was the Saturday matinee our audience was full of wide-eyed youngsters mesmerised by the tradition with all the characters, colours, dance routines, sights, costumes and colours.

The stage at the Academy is large by comparison and was adorned by a large forestage which allowed for plenty of action from this large cast of 32, often in fact overspilling onto the floor of the auditorium and making full use of it. The opening scene was a backcloth of Peking with a flat on either side each housing a typical oriental style architecturally shaped mosaic window. Setting the scene perfectly. The set was designed, and artwork done by Maxine Connolly, then build and rigged by Russell Jones, Dave Maltby, Katrina Adams, Flo Stevens Deborah Humphreys, Katie Connolly, Catherine Goodman and James Dalton and stage managed by Spice New-Szarvas with a crew of Ben & Chris Thompson, Taya Rolph, Russ Jones and Jack Gardner.

The technical side in the experience hands of Dave and Kate Maltby worked well in this new venue. Lighting and sound were both excellent and clarity was never an issue. One or two mics took a second or two to activate at the beginning of a couple of scenes but were very quickly rectified. Particularly good technical effect of flames and smoke whenever the genie appeared.  Nice job as usual.  

The array of colourful costumes sourced by Sarah Vahmyanina, Kay Young and Gareth Griffiths-Powell were particularly vibrant, especially the Dames as you would expect but also the Emperor, and some were also highly amusing, such as the two police in silly jump suits. Our villain was also particularly well kitted out with suitable evil attire as indeed was the genie. The accompanying props were well sourced by Catherine Goodman.

Our Hero Aladdin played by Hannah Ridley, was a strong lead who gave us a very confident and traditional performance, which was good to see.  Very well cast. The love interest, Princess Camelia played by Jessie Fox always had a great smile on her face but still looked suitably in need of rescue by Aladdin at all times.

The king pin of this show was undoubtedly Ollie Elkin as Widow Twankey, making his first appearance in a dress since 2019. Certainly, a very enjoyable watch with all the traditional elements played to max. One highly amusing moment when enthusiasm got the better of him and he ended up putting the Emperor on his backside. Surprised the Emperor let her keep her head after that! But love conquers all! Meanwhile, the Emperor, played by Josh Brushett was suitably regal and imposing at all times, apart of course from when he was on his backside. Particularly loved his headgear, very oriental!

Now, I loved James Dalton as our villain Abanaza. He just looked the part in a Johnny Depp style, a hansom fella with an evil look, who knows how to swirl a cloak and extract all the necessary boos and hisses from an audience.  Perfect casting, played to the hilt!

Oscar Wells as Aladdin’s brother Wishee Washee was also brilliant and provided first rate rapport with the audience. As we all yelled Washee to his Wishee when ever he appeared, or rather, as he enthusiastically leapt onto the stage. Katie Connolly as Waterlilly, Princess Camelia’s handmaiden provided Wishee Washee’s love interest looking very demure with a great smile when she could keep up with Wishee whom she was determined to capture.

In a twist to the traditional story, we didn’t have one spirit, we had two starting with Katrina Adams as the enthusiastic Spirit of the Ring. And what a voice with her rendition of ‘Diamonds are Forever’ and her contributions to ‘I want it all’ and ‘Chandelier.’ And then we had Gareth Griffiths-Powell as the stern Genie of the lamp. To reiterate – Super pyro effect every time the genie arrived in a puff of smoke. And lets not forget Jack Gardiner and Molly Meehan as a Mummy and a Ghost. - Great stuff!

And what can we say about the two village idiots, PC Short Wee and Sgt Long Wee (love the double entendre), played by Paula Hill and Natasha Leftwich.  Their antics and costumes provided some of the best laughs and some of the worst groans – all good humoured stuff!

The only scene which I would offer a little criticism on was the slapstick scene in the laundry. Not enough slapstick and a bit slow. Apart from it’s traditional to put one in I didn’t really get the point of its inclusion. NB: I was told afterwards that they had a couple of technical issues with some props and the set which impacted the pace and was assured the other performances were a lot pacier.

The choreography I thought took a little while to get going and I was beginning to wonder if we’d get into some really good routines. I need not have worried however, as after several crowd swaying scenes Choreographers Sarah Vahmyanina, Katie Connolly, Kerry Hewish and Kay Young started to come into their own and show us what they had been up to and we built to some terrific numbers which not only filled the stage but took full advantage of the auditorium as well to some very well selected popular songs from Queen to The Darkness to Shakin Stevens to which we couldn’t help but sing along.

The musicality of this show was exceptional under MD Tim Gardiner. BATS are blessed with a plethora of good singing voices of which Tim took full advantage.

And then just before the finale we had the bedlam which is the ultimate audience participation game - the snowball fight with polystyrene balls! Love it!

So well done to Director Kay Young, her cast and crew, a vibrant well-paced show which, much to my surprise kept the very young audience fully mesmerised for over three hours albeit with an extended interval due to a medical issue. I sat next to a mum with her six-year-old son, and they couldn’t stop raving about it.

NODA retains all intellectual rights to the content of this show report. 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.