Our tale unfolds in Donnyville, bygone village of quaintly painted back-cloths, colourful cut-outs, oldie-world costumes and glittery bits, all full of warm traditional panto charm. And Donnyville has got the Trotts: Jack Trott, brother Silly Billy Trott, mum Dame Dotty Trott and loveable Daisy, a furry, cuddly, well rounded, pretty-eyed cow. When a chap in suit and bowler (or could it be the devious Countess Fleshcreep?) suddenly hands over a colossal tax bill, the Trotts are forced to sell poor Daisy to a straw-chewing farmer (or could it be the devious Countess Fleshcreep?) Oh, dear! They end up with nowt but a bag of beans! But behold! Mother Nature’s magic wand waves and the puny beans grow into a giant beanstalk of such vibrant, luminous green it makes your eyes wobble. Now timid, cowardly Jack must instantly man up to his fear of heights and fights to shin up said supersized stalk and rescue the lovely Jill, who, thanks to creepy, calculating Fleshcreep, is imprisoned in the Giant’s lofty castle. And maybe (with the help of his mum, brother and girlfriend) Jack can rescue Daisy, the golden harp and the goose that lays the golden eggs, and make them all rich.
The main Trott task, though, is, of course, to steer us along on a journey of song, dance and minor romance while navigating minefields of jokes, puns, rhyming couplets, banter, gentle innuendo, slapstick and silliness. For the most part, the comedy and crowd control are deftly orchestrated by Ben Eagle and Harry Gascoigne as Dame Dotty and Silly Billy, working together with engaging enthusiasm and panache as they did last year. Their all-round, well-oiled polish is a delight as we travel via ice-cream pies in the face, quick quips involving Grimsby, Truss, Boris and Farage to longer, sillier jokes like, I saw a baguette in a cage at the zoo – bread in captivity! Both performers connect superbly with the audience – even when child volunteers stand onstage, throwing endless googly spanners into their works! And as for their astoundingly adventurous feats of verbal accuracy and alacrity in the seamless, flawless delivery of particularly powerful proliferations of painful and potentially perilous patter! Well, surely they can’t be beat! Eagle has the Dame Game down to a fine art and Gascoigne is a true master of endearing silly-billyness.
Dotty’s damely gowns show elegant restraint this year: nothing bedecked with lamp-stands, teapots, eye-balls or kitchen sinks. Instead, she sports splendidly bright, dotty, busy-patterned frocks with fine width and bounce, accessorised by sparkly trainers – plus a canny baked-bean number and a sporty runner-bean/pea-pod creation.
Another with great stage presence and accomplished in bringing to life a vibrant, engaging character is Robyn McIntyre as cunning Countess Fleshcreep. Not for her, though, are green face, swirling capes or exaggerated melodrama. No, her elegant wickedness comes through sinuous movements and throaty, giggling whinnies – like Kate Bush meets Shirley Henderson’s Moaning Myrtle, only much meaner. Indeed, over-egged melodrama and extreme caricature are not really on the menu for this show, which takes a blander approach, Jack, Jill and Mother Nature being just pretty ordinary folk. But it’s all warm and enjoyable, with sterling work from the busy, talented local dancers who are forever singing and dancing with the cast as villagers or chasing about as horrid, shiny, antennae-quivering bugs. Splendid music maintains fabulous flow thanks to MD Sonum Batra, assistant MD/percussionist, Taneli Clarke and some Silly Billy sax.
While not as wild and flamboyant as sometimes, this is a jolly panto full of unflagging good humour and warm enjoyment with song, dance, smoke, glitter, goodies, baddies, Gladiators wielding giant cotton-bud clubs, squirty water-pistols, pantomime moo cow, squawking hand-puppet goose and a great, booming-voiced gruffalo of a Giant that’s a wonder to behold, frighteningly large and beastly yet also rather handsome – oh, and there’s a Jack and a beanstalk!
Eileen Caiger Gray
