From the Aberdonian chappie who made the news when his head got stuck in a city-centre litter bin to the weel-kent wifie who played a battered guitar in Union Street, this panto has local colour running through it like the lettering in a stick of rock.
Even the singalong cloot at the end is in Doric, the words reprising an earlier comical confusion on a profusion of "kens" in a sentence, ken.
And while Alan McHugh's rollicking script bows, briefly, to the Gangnam Style that has invaded the Pantosphere, it makes a virtue out of playing and punning closer to home: the take on Living La Vida Loca that is Living In New Pitsligo scores five stars on its own account.
None of this sharp, clever comedy comes at the expense of the story, however. McHugh's irrepressively gallus Dame and glaikit son (Jordan Young, more rubber-legged and daft than ever) slot neatly into the narrative, helping to drive it along. Elaine C Smith forsakes her previous good character in panto to be the wicked lady hell-bent on getting rid of the real queen, Snow White – conjuring up a fabulously scary dragon and doing hocus-pocus with a cauldron, though she still finds time for a rockin' turn as a Spice Girl.
Seven little dwarfs – children in masks – look enough like the familiar Disney visuals to delight younger audiences, but actually this whole handsomely staged production has a wow factor that caters for all ages. That magic mirror would surely say this panto was the fairest of them all this year – and magic mirrors never lie, ken.
HHHHH
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