The Wizard of Oz

As part of RAG’s ‘Winter Wonderland’ this week, PantSoc gave its Christmas pantomime in Vanbrugh dining hall. Appearing with a much smaller cast than usual, the production was supported by ComedySoc’s ‘The Shambles’, and followed the perennial tale of The Wizard of Oz, with some characteristic student twists.

I’ve never been a big fan of The Shambles; improv is hit-and-miss at best, and I’ve never been particularly impressed by the group’s efforts towards humour. I think they may have really found their niche here though, as they make a very effective warm-up act; the audience participation element and the informal - perhaps shambolic - feel are a great way of getting the audience energy just right. I think in this capacity those features of their performance make up for the relatively shallow humour, and I look forward to their supporting more performances in future.

The production values are a little underwhelming, and at £4 per ticket I definitely would expect some sort of arranged seating - as it was, the first three rows had adequate view, and beyond that it was a case of choosing between listening to the show only, or sitting on the floor in front. The staging was acceptable, but there’s nothing very special going on; at this point, it could really go either way. The pantomime itself took a while to hit its stride in terms of the music as well as the humour, but it was worth the wait. There are a lot of nice moments, once you get away from the token university references, and after warming up a bit the cast do make this piece a lot of fun. It’s well-written, but the humour shines through more strongly, ultimately, than the empathy; there are even a few take-home quality jokes. Dorothy and Toby’s eventual union, however, wasn’t satisfying since the development was a little thin. Dorothy was still a shallow, egotistical social climber, and Toby seemed to win her heart because he didn’t talk too much - an accolade which comes naturally when you’re trapped in the body of a dog. As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather a pantomime made me laugh than care particularly about its characters, but it would be nice to care a bit. This aside, the writing here is fairly good, often very funny, and works well.

There are a few beautifully choreographed dances, and some very original thinking, especially in the sequences involving umbrellas. These moments were somewhat lost, however, because of what seemed to be under-rehearsal. The ensemble couldn’t even keep their rhythmic clapping in time in the final number, and I think probably more time should have been spent getting what might have been a few very snappy numbers right.

I have a growing suspicion that PantSoc is largely populated by would-be transvestites; if not, they’ve been very lucky (in my experience) to have such a constant supply of very funny stage cross-dressers. Oz is no exception, and George Hughes gives a very enjoyable performance as Lovely Luna, although there is a sense later on that he’s in an uphill struggle against the increasing complexity of his lines - a lot of the later jokes lose something through being very intricate, which ultimately deflates their humour. Nonetheless, a performance to match and even exceed many of this world’s professional Widow Twankeys, and a performance which contributed a lot to the show as a whole.

I think, overall, PantSoc’s Oz is best described as promising. Vague directing and under-rehearsal seem responsible for rendering it an amateurish bit of fun at best, but with further attention there is definitely potential here. I certainly did have a few laughs, but in the certain knowledge that I could have had more laughs, and PantSoc would have been more than capable of extracting them, with a little more care and attention. Still, not a bad little pantomime, and an OK way to spend an evening - or should that be OZ?

Add Comment

You must log in to submit a comment.