Live Review: A comedic spectacle? Oh yes it is! York Theatre Royal’s Panto is here

Graeme Smith

4 months ago

Last night I consumed a deliciously magical confection, sprinkled with fairy dust.

By Angie Millard

Feature photo by Pamela Raith Photography

York Theatre Royal’s pantomime: Sleeping Beauty has arrived.

Panto can be difficult to manage but this one delivered all I could hope to see in one beautiful package. Traditions were mixed with just the right amount of innovation, and the audience adored the show.

Aoife Kenny as Princess Aurora and Christian Mortimer as Prince Michael were a perfect match to provide the important romance and Aurora also proved to be a strong role model when she independently fought off the final attack by a dinosaur, but more of that later.

We had a dark opening to introduce the forces of good and evil in the characters of Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, an assured, reliable conveyor of good, pitted against Jocasta Almgill’s punk style evil Carabosse. Robin Simpson as Nurse Nellie and Tommy Carmichael as his cheeky sidekick Jangles were also there to provide a breathtaking range of humour and comedy.

Simpson is a master of the one liner to accompany his routines. We have his trademark sketch: the telling a story with slick use of (in this case) show titles, the use of an audience male as his stooge, and of course the much rhythmically repeated mantra, “we’re going to have to do it again, aren’t we!” Add to that a school scene and a ghost haunting bedroom interlude with massive puppets and you get the flavour.

Simpson nails the physical comedy too and naturally a slapstick scene with paint and tickle stick was also slipped in. Carmichael plays a perfectly timed and reliable partner in all of this.

Photos by Pamela Raith Photography

Panto is glamorous and the sets and costumes did not fail. Constant changes and spectacle provided visual texture and the inclusion of Kevin, Carabosse’s pet monstrous dinosaur, was another original device, as was Kris Madden, a fire artist par excellence.

Detail is evident in everything, and I particularly enjoyed the use of a box of toy soldiers which transformed into a marching comically-realised unit, with Simpson bringing up the rear in a basket cart.

I have never seen Sleeping Beauty before and admire the author’s ingenuity in fleshing out the simple story. Juliet Forster has created a wonderful show with energy and above all Christmas magic.