JACK AND THE BEAN STALK

I love pantomime, I grew up with pantomime, performed in pantomime, done the makeup for pantomime, designed for pantomime… panto is in my DNA. And I like my pantomime pure and traditional, I like to sing along, boo the baddy and cheer “It’s behind you” and all that goes with it.

A few decades back we started seeing the art form, and yes it is an art form, start to be debased. We saw the demise of the principal boy, the influx of pop and soap stars and even dames being played by women!

In recent years panto has been woken even further, the whitewashing of a tradition going back centuries has been all too apparent and I hate it. I’m no misogynist, I live and breathe inclusivity and I am no stranger to campaigning for rights. So right now I am campaigning for the right to protect panto, hands off our traditions, play with them, the form has always been open to being relevant and political, to working on two levels, for kids and for adults, but above all protect it in all its gaudy festive frivolity, recognise that some of those traditions are of a time, they are heritage. It panto were a building they would slap a conservation order on it and I would fight for it to be be Grade I Listed!

Today I saw panto in its true form, a celebration of those traditions being played for an audience of kids and their families. It was vibrant, relevant and a little saucy, saucy but never salacious. Everyone lapped it up, joining in the fun from rapt toddlers to toddling pensioners. A joyously silly seasonal serving, modern enough yes, but built on tradition. This is what the Brighton Family Panto company do and have done for the last few years. And they do it so well. This year we have Jack And The Beanstalk, one of my favourites and one that has space for so many of those traditions, magic, mayhem and a dame. Once again David Hill has strapped on his bouncing bosoms and outrageous wigs to give us Camilla Trott. This is proper dame, no intention to deceive the audience, we know it’s a man in a frock and this time our dame appears de-wigged at times to emphasise that this is no gender illusion, a proper dame delivered with class.

Added to this we also have Daisy The Cow, here played by drag prince Alfie Ordinary. Alfie is a local legend who has created his own theatrical manifestation, and it is far from ordinary, it is extraordinary. Daisy is a preening Prima Donna of the bovine ilk, a besequinned spotted heifer strutting around the stage with a padded rump, scary pink udders and plenty of attitude – Alfie puts the mince into beef or the beef into mince, you choose.

Silly Billy is played by Allan Jay who is charmingly sweet in the role, winning over the kids, of all ages, in the audience. Jay is no stranger to panto, and it shows, and the man can sing. People who know his other performing person will be shocked though to see him with very few sequins and no gold lamé, or not until the

Mother Nature is played by Sharon Starr, a storytelling device well crafted with a contemporary edge and she too can deliver a song.

Fleshcreep here is played by Susan Salmon, not as scary as most representations of the giant’s henchman and tax collector but yet another fine and powerful voice. And she does elicit the boos as the show goes on, but I found her rather too likeable.

Jack Trott, he of the beanstalk, is played by Alfie Murray and he is every inch an excellent principal boy, sweet in nature and sweet of voice too and a perfect balance to Princess Jill played so well by Eloise Beck. Apart from Cinderella princess roles in panto are never very well explored but here we get a rather good modern no nonsense princess with plenty of presence and no shortage of sass. And notice a theme here, wow, this girl can sing, what a great voice and such clarity, even defying the rather loud sound on this occasion.

And that sound is my only caveat here, I know that loud is a fashion but even my watch issued a warning when it hit 90 decibels. I didn’t know my watch could even do that. Early on the booming sound detracted from the witty script with words being lost, especially for Daisy’s big number from which I gleaned some very funny lyrics. It’s my only complaint and only slightly impacted my enjoyment. For me that enjoyment is not only the performance on the stage but the joy in the audience, I was surrounded by children of all ages simply lapping it up and maybe for their first time enjoying the magic of live theatre. Next year they are doing Aladdin and I bet there will be nothing wishy washy about it!

Andrew Kay

24 December

Jason Sutton theatre at Doubletree Hilton