The news that a first time ever professional panto was being staged at Cottiers had Ofpants, the official panto watchdog, chivvying me to meet him there on Sunday evening.
He was bristling with curiosity: Scrooge and pantomime don't easily partner up in his experience. As for Cottiers, the watchdog had memories of the venue that suggested the team behind this venture had set themselves some interesting design and technical challenges.
His checklist afterwards showed a mixed response. In terms of sheer, undaunted effort, he couldn't help but be impressed. A cast of four – five if you count the live musician (Ian Bustard) who valiantly donned wrapping paper as the Ghost of Christmas Present – had dashed on and off and on again at speed to deliver an updated Glesga version of Dickens that had topicality and satire in its sights, but which was never quite on target.
The present day Scrooge (Callum Cuthbertson) ran a dodgy pawnbrokers with connections to lowlife swindling and fencing. His nephew (Claire Knight, in one of her many roles) was prone to rapping, lived in a high-rise flat and hung out with social security cheats – he was kind-hearted and had some catchy songs 'n'all. Mark Cox, who co-wrote the script and songs with Bustard, went the extra mile in versatility by Dame-ing it as chantoosie Thelma and working hand-in-glove with Tiny Tim, a puppet. Isabelle Joss ran the gamut from warbling Ghost to Cratchit girlie to cackling old hag. But it was hardly panto as Ofpants knows and champions it.
Though it kept revving up to be killingly funny, it tended to flatline. The action singalong at the end did get Ofpants joining in though the heating in Cottiers, like the show, is a bit hit and miss.
HH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article