REVIEW: Lambton Worm at South Shields Customs House

PANTO IS A TRIUMPH

The Lambton Worm

South Shields Customs House

Until Saturday 6^th January 2018

 

The Customs House panto has been a highlight of our theatre year for some time. It has reliably delivered that magical mix of lovable characters, great writing and fabulous design. As for the panto dame: if Carlsberg did panto dames then they’d copy Ray Spencer who controls the proceedings with sharp wit and experience.  This is one panto that fans of the genre make sure they attend.

This year’s masterclass was based upon the local legend The Lambton Worm, a tale that was performed as a panto 150 years ago.  In this version, the young heir of the Lambton estate Brave & Bold Sir John Lambton (Steven Lee Hamilton) goes fishing and picks up an odd worm from the river. He tosses it down a well where it grows into a monster. At that time he is cruel to young Penelope (Georgia Nicholson) and she holds a grudge which leads to Poison Pen, as she becomes, wanting revenge using the worm-like monster.   Every panto has good guys and Suzie The Soothsayer (Natasha Haws) supports Dame Bella Ballcock (Ray Spencer) and his son, the hapless Arbuthnot (David John Hopper). Suzie makes their dog Puddles (Lewis Jobson) talk so he can warn them about the approaching dangers. In order to fight the monster Sir John is recalled from foreign travels in which he is busy getting to know the Sultan’s daughter, the Princess Aneesa (Eleanor Chaganis) much to the annoyance of the Sultan (Gareth Hunter).

One of the features of the Customs House panto is the set design and costume design. Paul Shriek and Matt Fox have a definitely recognisable style and this permeates throughout each of the outfits and each part of the set. It is this level of attention to detail that applies to every aspect of the show. “It’s good enough” is not an apparent phrase used in planning the show.

Not only does the panto look good, there is a real warmth in the room. The audience and the cast really seem to appreciate each other. Noticeable in this evening’s production was the number of all adult groups simply wanting to enjoy an evening full of feel good laughs.

The cast can control the room. Natasha Haws is a lovely good and magical soothsayer whereas Georgia Nicholson attracts all of the booing from the crowd. The work the room nicely in their respective roles. Both are good singers too and, along with Steven Lee Hamilton, they deliver the musical interludes.

The real ringmaster of chaos is co-writer (along with Graeme Thompson), director, and panto dame Ray Spencer. Here is someone who is in control from the first “Eeeeee!” and “How rude!” through to the moment he stands back after the community singing to let the audience get on with it. The script is full of jokes, some of them for the kids, others will have the adults howling with laughter with the kids looking on blissfully unaware.

The messy scene, like last year, starts of with a few prat falls and “accidents” due to comic timing – and then ends up becoming a scene of survival as the mess turns the floor into a slippery hazard. Poor David John Hopper must finish the day black and blue as he crashes to the floor repeatedly.

This is a really interactive experience as the action on stage interacts with the response from the audience. The younger crowd become animated, in particular during the take-off scene. The children screaming “it’s behind you” with a passion not seen in other pantos. The three-ringed circus involves the adults too as the adults react to Arbuthnot’s costume for the scene.

This is a 2½ hour experience that flies by quickly. Each of the cast members gets their spot from the talking dog Lewis Jobson through to the Mimic Men’s man of many voices Cal Halbert, who is making his panto debut.  We also had a team of young dancers who performed very professionally as they danced great choreographed routines from Jacqui West.

This is also a show that is good value, with adult tickets starting at £9.99 and a top price ticket costing £16.50. Prices are similar to a trip to a 3D film and much cheaper than most live sport or other forms of entertainment though a visit for refreshment at The Customs House will not leave you needing a remortgage.

The show looks good, feels good and had us buzzing about the many laughs we had this evening in the car ride home. It is another panto master class from Ray and the team.

Tickets:

The Lambton Worm runs from Tuesday, November 28, 2017, until Saturday, January 6, 2018, with ticket prices starting at £9.99. Performance times vary. Contact the box office on (0191) 454 1234 or book online at www.customshouse.co.uk.

REVIEW: Alice in Wonderland at Newcastle Northern Stage

Bonkers & Brilliant

Alice in Wonderland

Newcastle Northern Stage

Until Saturday 6^th January 2018

1. Photo: Pamela Raith

Don’t underestimate the significance that the Northern Stage Christmas shows have on culture in the region. Many of the region’s creatives first taste of theatre was watching shows at the venue in either its current guise or as The Playhouse/Gulbenkian. The ability to create something different, to take calculated risks and to understand how to entertain young creative minds is unique. They can take a standard story like Lewis Carroll’s 19^th century tale and make it vibrant, unusual and bonkers. Yes, definitely bonkers.

Photo: Pamela Raith

Arriving in the theatre it is obvious that designer Rhys Jarman has been given an opportunity to fully exploit the space. Walls have been removed, seating has moved and a performance space created in the centre. A nice touch is the cabaret seating around the stage complete with Alice themed lamps. Indeed, the opening moments have a Cabaret feel as it appears the Theresa Heskins penned script is a musical with a European twist.

Alice in Wonderland has had a few changes from the original tale but the spirit has been retained.

Photo: Pamela Raith

Alice (Alex Tahnee) is an illiterate 11½ year old girl who lives with her parents on a ship. They run out of food, so they dock and tell Alice to head off with a set of cards to earn some money doing card tricks. She ends up watching the Great Blanco (Chris Prince) who runs off with her cards. In the chase to retrieve the cards she finds herself with a bottle with a label she cannot read: ‘Drink Me’ she is told. The potion changes her size and the fun begins. She meets the tyrant Red Queen (Laura Riseborough) and the more pleasant White Queen (Alice Blundell), has a crazy tea party and runs into Tweedle Dee (Michael Blair) and Tweedle Dum (Andrew Bleakley).

Photo: Pamela Raith

There is a degree of creativity with the set up of some of the characters. The Cheshire Cat (Clara Darcy) and the Jabberwocky will fuel the imagination of the young audience. As the tale moves around the venue Colin Grenfell’s lighting design picks out the action. The sound too is perfect. Unlike some shows we have seen recently, the sound copes with the move from spoken parts to the songs.

Photo: Pamela Raith

Mark Calvert has directed a show that has something new to offer someone who has seen a number of productions about Alice. There is something always happening and the action is very tight. It is sometimes too easy to take it for granted when witnessing such a well constructed show that many elements have to happen at the right moment to pull off the seamless experience for the audience and, yet, they achieve it.   

Photo: Pamela Raith

But the show isn’t robotic and it remembers that there are young people in the audience. We saw the show at 10:30 on a Saturday morning and, especially towards the end, the young voices could be heard reacting to the action which is great. The young people were invited to comment (though not quite in the panto “it’s behind you”, but not far off), to clap with some songs and to join in on the tea party fun. My young companion has seen four Christmas shows so far this season and he said this was the most enjoyable one so far. High praise indeed. Young people can often process many complicated themes – that’s why Wicked is such a hit – and they like shows that run off at a tangent.

Alex Tahnee leads a cast that work hard and engage well with the young audience. The ensemble put a lot of effort in with the props and dancing. Performing in the round is a big challenge as you need to engage people in 4 different directions. Certainly where we were sat we could see the action at all times.

Photo: Pamela Raith

So, once again, Northern Stage nicely fills in the gap for a Christmas family show that is not a panto. Visually exciting with some nice songs and incidental musical soundscapes performed live on stage, rather than in an orchestra pit, by composer Jeremy Bradfield and his fellow musicians. I don’t think any other venue in the region is going to go to this amount of effort to rearrange a pre-existing building to fit around their end of year show. Alice in Wonderland is going to inspire another generation of creative minds. And it is bonkers, we love it for that reason too.

Review by Stephen Oliver.

Tickets:

Tickets are now on sale from £10 at www.northernstage.co.uk or call the box office on 0191 230 5151.

REVIEW: Dick Whittington at Seaton Delaval Arts Centre

Dick Whittington

Seaton Delaval Arts Centre

Until Saturday 9th December 2017

The Seaton Delaval Pantomime Society have been putting on shows since 1973 and it is clear that they know a thing or two about this form of entertainment. On the “Panto Bingo Card” we had a full house: jokes, audience participation, take off scene, messy scene, songs, 12 Days of Christmas and some really corny jokes.  As the show’s most expensive ticket is just £10, it just goes to show that you can experience a funny family show without breaking the bank.

Dick Whittington is a tale of a young lad that wants more out of life so he leaves Blyth, with his cat (Kieran Cowan), and heads to London. Dick (Megan Metcalfe) meets Idle Jack (Mark Robinson) guarding parcels from the evil King Rat (Lewis Hill). Dick ends up working, at the same shop as Jack, for Fitzwarren (Katie Jackson) and immediately falls in love with his daughter Alice (Erin Hattrick). King Rat appears and steals money, setting it up for Dick to get the blame so he heads off with his Mum, Dame Marmalade (Stu Bennett), his cat and Jack in order to find Rat and clear his name.

This is a very traditional panto complete with Fairy Godmother (Lauren Greenwood) and yet it felt like the 70s/80s BBC children’s show Crackerjack. This is in no way a bad thing. Whilst some shows are heavily scripted but they don’t leave anything to chance by involving the audience, this Seaton Delaval panto lives on the dangerous side of the tracks. The audience gets many opportunities to interact and the cast find ways to interact back. In the three ringed circus, both the audience and the cast feed off each others energy and it makes for a cracking show.

The puns are so old they were probably buried with Tutankhamun however we could hear the young members of the audience squealing with delight as they may have heard them for the first time. And here is the crunch of the matter: this is not about me, this is about a room of mainly primary aged school kids having a fun time. To that end this show is very successful.

This feels like an ensemble piece as the cast work well together to deliver the show. We have the lovable good guys, boo-able baddies, a mad Dame and Idle Jack who befriended the audience.

The show features a live band, under Musical Director Gareth Miller, which is a great boost as they can improvise when first night issues kicked in on stage, whereas a recorded tape wouldn’t be as flexible. Song wise we had the theme from the Titanic movie through to the Spice Girls’ Wannabie. Some of the singing and song choices worked better than others. The show also had a group of dancers that successfully filled the stage with movement thanks to the routines from choreographers Mark Robinson and Katie Jackson.

Dick Whittington is a fun evening’s entertainment and directors Stu Bennett and Lorna Beth Pearson have a clear idea about what makes a good panto for their target audience. Some of the highlights were not planned – especially when the 5 toilet rolls flew off and landed on the lighting equipment – but there is a real warmth to the show. That passion to make the audience a part of the show is what separates this production from many of the shows out there.

Review by Stephen Oliver.

Tickets:

The show takes place nightly until Saturday 9th December at the Seaton Delaval Arts Centre. Performances take place nightly at 1.00pm. Tickets are priced at £10.00 for full price, £9.00 for concessions and £34.00 for a family ticket, available from the Box Office on 0191 237 5460 or book online at www.seatondelavalartscentre.com. 

REVIEW: Peter Pan at Newcastle Theatre Royal

Epic Production at Theatre Royal

Peter Pan

Newcastle Theatre Royal

Until Sunday 21st January 2018

Having seen a few of the pantos at the Theatre Royal I could see the results of the effort put in to make this, the 13^th one starring the father and son team Clive Webb and Danny Adams, extra special. The show has the high production values of a Qdos show but with a unique charm that comes from a local team. I thought I’d seen it all, I was wrong.

 

Danny Adams (Peter Pan)

Chris Hayward (Mrs Smee) and crocs

There were pratfalls aplenty and a lot of silly jokes to keep children and adults laughing. Acrobatic tricks that drew gasps from the audience, came from “The Drunken Pirates”, Sascha Williams and Stephanie Nock, and the amazing Timbuktu Tumblers.

Danny Adams (Peter Pan) and Clive Webb (Smee)

The show managed to be something of a variety performance, with comedy, magic and vocal performances and surprises that just kept coming.

Chris Hayward (Mrs Smee)

Danny (as Peter Pan) and Clive (as Smee) still have the audience creased and Danny’s brother Michael Potts reprises his classic “Idiot” role which somehow works so well. Chris Hayward brings the glamour as the dame Mrs Smee. Rita Smee had some absolutely stunning costumes created by Chris himself. Nana the dog was a superb costume and well played by whoever was in there, but only appeared for a short time. Steve Arnott played an imposing and even quite likeable Captain Hook. His makeup was superb. It was almost sad to see him gobbled up so dramatically by TicToc the crocodile. Pete Peverley played  a very, very Geordie Starkey, the vital sidekick to Captain Hook.

Michael Potts (The Lost Idiot)

Tinker Bell was played delightfully by Laura Evens and rival for Peter’s attention, Wendy was played by the charming Julie Cullen.

The Darling children were depicted by young actors who never put a foot wrong and the Marron Theatre Arts students who played the Lost Boys were excellent.

Laura Evans (Tinker Bell)

One thing I’m glad was missing is a “3D” movie section of the show. Clever use of screens and technology used the genuine 3 dimensions of the stage to make people fly and a great beast leer out into the audience. This part was sterling work from The Twins FX.

Steve Arnott (Captain Hook) and Pete Peverley (Starkey)

This is an epic production that is a credit to the large team behind it. From the producer/director Michael Harrison, Theatre Royal Orchestra, the special effects specialists and the choreographer to the lighting and pyrotechnics, the show is a masterpiece of Panto.

Review by Joanne Oliver

Danny Adams (Peter Pan)

Tickets:

Peter Pan appears at Newcastle Theatre Royal from Tuesday 28 November 2017 – Sunday 21 January 2018. Tickets go on general sale on Tue 22 Nov from £13.00 and can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge) or book online at www.theatreroyal.co.uk.

Tickets are already on sale for next year’s panto too!:

Goldilocks, the pantomime that’s just right! plays Tuesday 27^thNovember 2018 – Sunday 20^th January 2019 and tickets are now on public sale.

Tickets are from £13 and can be purchased from the Theatre Royal Box Office on 08448 11 21 21 (Calls cost 7ppm plus your phone company’s access charge) or book online atwww.theatreroyal.co.uk.