Aladdin

I've been meaning to blog about this for ages, and have now finally got round to it. Just before Christmas, we went to the panto - The Oxford Playhouse hosted a production of 'Aladdin'. I haven't been to see a pantomime for a few years now, so wasn't quite sure what to expect. I know I have a few American readers here at the Bloggy Bits and I don't think you guys have 'panto' over there. How could I best describe the whole concept to you? It is a genre of theatre supposedly for children, but adults love it too; it actively encourages audience participation, and usually contains at least a little smut (now you know why I like it ;-) ). Pantomimes are often based on traditional fairy tales and have at least one 'dame' (that's a man dressed in women's clothes) and both he, and most of the rest of the ensemble, camp it up as much as possible.

After driving round Oxford for almost half an hour in search of a parking space, we got to the theatre 15 minutes before curtain-up, which gave us just enough time to visit the cloakrooms, purchase programmes, and buy extortionately overpriced sweets for the kids. I am a meanie so had taken drinks and eats with me, but No.1 insisted it wouldn't be the 'complete experience' without getting something (she chose some fruit gums and then kept badgering me throughout the show to shine my mobile phone on the bag, so she could pick out all the strawberry ones).

This particular production was directed by Peter Duncan of Blue Peter fame, and the whole cast were brilliant. Our favourite characters were Widow Twanky, Abanazer and the Genie.

Widow Twanky

Widow Twanky was played by Simon Green. For some reason this Widow Twanky had a broad Scots accent and she/he appeared in a whole array of gaudy and ghastly gowns. A quick google taught me that Mr Green is a very experienced actor even though I'm afraid I'd never heard of him before. He was a wonderful dame and some of the best 'adult' lines came from him (he dealt superbly with heckling from the audience and was, quite plainly, enjoying himself enormously). Early on he picked on a couple of grown ups from near the front of the stalls and they became his stooges for the entire show. Paul and Annabel - I felt sorry for you, but it was very funny.

Abanazer and Widow Twanky

Abanazer was played by Miles Western who was a splendid villain. We booed and hissed at him whenever he appeared on stage. At one point he said he detested children and hoped they were all sick on their Grandmas, an outburst which amused all the watching smalls. I couldn't find a dedicated web page for Mr Western, but did discover that he appeared in 'Absolutely Fabulous', the film version of 'Phantom of the Opera', plus zillions of theatre productions. Every time he came on stage, there was a huge puff of green smoke and some dark, maniacal laughter. A child sitting not too far away from us burst into tears the first four times he appeared, but after that entered into the spirit of shouting at the baddie.

The Genie (fronting the whole ensemble)

The genie was played by Fraser Collins in a 1970s Disco-God stylee. He wore a range of skin-tight lycra all-in-ones and sported an afro. I have no idea whether Mr Collins is really American, but he played the role with an American accent, and lots of cheeky bum-shaking. Googling him has taught me he has quite a history of musical theatre, which isn't really surprising given his very obvious singing and dancing talent. Those costumes were pretty unforgiving, and when Widow Twanky told him to "put a sock in it ... oh I see you already have" all the adults knew (and could see :-O ) just what she meant. ;-)

It lasted for well over two hours, and we laughed for much of that time. No.2 was completely enthralled (I swear that boy has some proper 'luvvie' genes in him somewhere) and said he was very keen to 'do that' one day. No.1 was, at first, a bit of a self-conscious party-pooper, finding it very 'uncool' to shout, clap, sing and boo. But by the interval she had thawed out and let herself go - possibly due to the power of the strawberry fruit gums?

The theatre are already advertising next year's Christmas production (it will apparently be 'Sleeping Beauty'). I think there's very little doubt that we shall be attending.

© Author