Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
When you think of the word 'panto', a few things come to mind, things which I and many others have come to detest. Two dimensional MDF stage props that wobble like the walls of Crossroads Hotel, the banality of the 'it's behind you' routine, Cannon and Ball. I also worried that in an attempt to make panto appeal to a student audience the director would resort to needlessly crass things like fart jokes and inflatable penises. My fears were thankfully unfounded.
The production had a very professional sheen from the artfully created pirate ship that dominated the stage to the innovative video shorts and lighting. The scriptwriters succeeded in discarding the outdated, 'Where's me washboard?' aspects of panto while still managing to maintain a saucy, slightly anarchic edge. Furthermore, the light satire of contemporary, celebrity obsessed culture was sucessfully played out without ever becoming overbearing or annoyingly political.
The leads were all excellent but a few deserve a special mention. The guy who played Peter Pan (It doesn't say who's who in the program and the contact I emailed about names has yet to reply) had the toughest job in the panto and pulled it off with aplomb. Although the characters like Tinker Bell and Tiger Lily were fantastic, it's always a more difficult job to play the lead, the straight(ish) man who has to compete with a drug addled hippy fairy and a randy Native American tribeslady. However, the gong for Performance of the Evening could go to only one man... Will Seaward. He is fantastic in his dual role as a narrator and the ghost of Long John Silver (comically clad in long johns and a silver coat). His resonant voice and sensitivity to pitch and metre impressed greatly. He sounded a bit like Brian Blessed circa Flash Gordon, and that is very much a compliment.
Unfortunately, the production was at times let down by the sound quality, something that was particularly noticable during the scene set in Ziggys when it was a struggle to hear the dialogue at a critical point in proceedings. However, it was opening night and I'm sure these little issues were ironed out for the later shows.
Overall, a highly entertaining and refreshingly contemporary pantomime!
You must log in to submit a comment.
