Panto with a difference
Panto is one of the great traditions of the English theatre. Based on old fairy stories – Dick Whittington and his Cat, Aladdin and the Forty Thieves, Cinderella or Red Riding Hood – it’s become a separate genre with its own characteristics;
- pantomime dames, aka men in drag playing old ladies, often of a villainous disposition;
- audience participation – chants of ‘Behind you!’ and ‘Oh no it isn’t!’
- camp jokes and doubles entendres which adults in the audience will understand and the under-tens hopefully won’t.
London is rich in panto and other Christmas or fairy tale themed performances this year. But few of them are traditional panto, intriguingly – they all seem to have a little twist.
One that I find particularly intriguing is the Barbican’s Hansel and Gretel. It’s a promenade performance, in which the audience follows the performers through the twists and turns of the dark forest, a.k.a. the impenetrable Barbican Centre.
Hansel and Gretel are children of the Seventies – the Bay City Rollers, the Goodies, and Morecambe and Wise are referenced in the play. That’s rather a nice twist. And the wicked stepmother drinks Babycham, which confirms everything I ever suspected about that brand.
And the play is suitably scary. The gingerbread house and the forest are spooky and chilling.
The downside? Well, the play doesn’t quite deliver what it promises, partly because 100 people is just too many for a fully immersive experience – crowd control tends to take over from theatrical effectiveness as the main concern.
And I suspect the slight self-consciousness of the performances makes this version of the panto one for an arty crowd out for a night’s amusement, rather than one to take the godchildren to.
Still, it’s amusing and original, and if like me you remember the Seventies (and particularly Seventies pop music) with a little wince of shame, it’s compulsive viewing.
Where: Barbican Centre (Barbican or Moorgate tube)
When: till 23rd January,various times – see Barbican website
Photo credit – Daryl Mitchell on flickr
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