Pantomime
Aladdin
Perth Theatre
Mary Brennan
***
ALL across the pantosphere, audiences are ooh-ing and aah-ing at astonishing special effects and transformations. However, the most amazing transformation at Perth Theatre is the make-over of the venue itself, with the lovingly-restored B-listed Edwardian auditorium now housed in a lavishly-appointed modern building.
There’s some shine on-stage too – coming brashly from the costumes, which favour copious metallic foils, and from a likeable cast who go all out to make this panto match up to the traditional festive treats of previous years. Sadly, it falls short of that mark with a book – written by Joel Horwood, redrafted for Perth by Frances Poet - that, despite repeated shouts of us being in Perthsia, lacks witty-pithy local colour and offers little in the way of really funny bantering patter.
We seem, in fact, to be ‘in da hood’ with even Abanazer (Christina Strachan, in an alarming, muscle-man fat suit) and the Genie (a boiler-suited Wendy Seagar) ready to rap. Like the whole look and feel of the production this comes across as a worried bid to be cool for kids. Meanwhile, Barrie Hunter, one of our most accomplished Dames, seems sidelined by this tack – not that an oddly quiet, if attentive, schools audience was the best springboard for Twankey’s archly knowing humour.
What really clicked was having a feisty Princess Jasmine (Nicola Sawyers) and a smarter than usual Wishy Washy (Tyler Collins) who, between them, rescue Aladdin (Gavin Jon Wright) from an unhappy ending. The long, lanky Collins has a live-wire energy that is so hugely appealing you wonder why Jasmine doesn’t fancy him. The song’n’dance stuff bops along popular lines – Ed Sheeran inevitably in the mix – with local children who never put a foot wrong in a panto that stumbles a bit.
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 here