Capably written and directed by Jo Mawhinney and to stretch our imagination, this year’s panto has morphed the theatre into a giant boat, the good ship HMS Georgian Theatre Royal, set in the mythical coastal town of Richmond-by-the-Sea. And what seaside town would be complete without an ice-cream van? There are treasure maps, caskets of gold, lots of squash and buckle and plenty of Tunnock’s teacakes.
A very funny Dame Wilhelmina Whippy, aka Nick O’Connor, has the scoop on ice cream jokes, the chilled ones are always the best, liberally sprinkled with audience groans; they are waffly funny. However, O’Connor’s Liverpudlian stand-up style is not quite outrageous enough, and there wasn’t enough panto business to keep the little adults’ attention in the first half. O’Connor was boldly interrupted with much hilarity by the delightful Jack McGarry as Peter Pan—in the wrong pantomime of course. Maybe a hint at next year’s panto?
Susie Chaytow’s Long Jane Silver, the baddy pirate complete with a saxophone that she plays rather well, enjoyed her boos and hisses. She is the perfect foil for silly Billy Bones, a heartfelt and funny performance from Moses Gale. And Marcus Jones gave us a brilliant, totally watchable Jim Hawkins.
Anna Bridgeman’s choreography is full of creativity throughout, with the well-rehearsed Young Company’s dance routines making the most of a multitude of mops and lots of hornpipe and sailor themes. Costume designer Dawn Summerlin provides sumptuous, colourful outfits and Josh Payne, musical director, must be complemented too, alongside Tony Wilcock’s always beautiful lighting design.
Set designer Foxton has pushed the boat out with an enormous moon hovering over the audience and settling over the bow of the ship. I would almost cite the giant moon as the star of the show, but wait, there’s lots of fun to come after the interval.
The company picks up the pace in the second half with some fabulous slapstick as the ice cream making equipment spreads slippery foam all over the stage. Jim Hawkins and Jolly Polly, Marcus Jones and Georgie O’Reilly, show off their musicality, and there are some great songs including “In the Navy”, “Gold”, “Ship to Wreck”, “Bad Weather Medley” and a rather neat rendition of “Rule the World”. I loved Moses Gale’s rendition of Harry’s Tiles at the Treasure Island Ice Cream Van. Oh, and Peter Pan flies in again, determined to be in the show.
One of my favourite characters was Boris the ship’s Rat, a small but vocal puppet who predicts disasters and gives advice on how to steer the ship. I’m told that a certain Mr. Sunak was in the audience on Saturday 7 December; I hope he enjoyed Aidan MacFarlane’s animation of Boris as much as I did.
The delicious meltdown of audience participation came in the form of brilliant, knitted items made by volunteer knitters from all over the world; a delightful tradition that everyone looks forward to as knitted ice cream cones are hurled at the actors by big and little people with great gusto.
“What Shall We do With a Drunken Sailor” found the audience in good voice, and the finale song, the well-known Status Quo version of “Rockin’ All Over the World” melts all the swashbuckling enemies into friends forever.
HMS Georgian Theatre Royal certainly did not sink without trace! And, if you could get a hug from a theatre, the Georgian Theatre Royal would be the one to do it.
Reviewer: Helen Brown