ALADDIN, this year’s panto from the Company of Friends, bursts on to the Chequer Mead stage with some deep and mysterious enchantment.
Instead of the band of happy villagers who often kick off panto fun, a blue genie levitates gently in the darkness, buoyed bobbingly up by sorcery as he sets the scene for this intriguing tale of Far East Glinstead.
And a large and impressive scene it is, glittering with red and gold, as the tale of poor Aladdin’s hopeless love for Princess-in-hiding Suki unfolds.
Abbie Lomax, a veteran of several Friends’ panto, is a wonderful Principal Boy.
As lovely of face as she is of voice, Abbie strides boyishly and endearingly through her role as the eponymous hero and had the audience in her hand from the first.
She had a worthy Princess in Skye Tupholme playing Suki, and their voices blended beautifully in their duets as they fought to let true love conquer all – including the machinations of bad Uncle Abandazar, played by Phil World.
Phil is a veteran baddy, and even the littlest panto-goer could tell he was a wrong’un from the moment he set foot on the stage, and booed accordingly…If only Aladdin had listened to them telling him not to go into that cave, he could have saved himself a whole bunch of trouble.
But once inside, and with the genie played by blue-hued Alex Watts released from a 1,000 years of enchantment, there was more mystery and magic as the cave-dwelling spirit creatures beguiled Aladdin with their dance, in a scene which exploded in gold at the finale to Act 1.
Widow Twankee was in the excellent hands of Kevin Gauntlett whose slick timing and deft comic touches wrung ready laughter from his audience. And upholding the comic tradition of panto were Andy Moore as Wishee Washee and John Barnett as Sgt Constable, whose slapstick antics and clever word play, were well both well-rehearsed and well-received.
Bringing up the rear, as it were, among the principals were Gilly Mill and Megan Peters, who between them brought Aladdin’s Sopwith Camel to life. They may not have had any spoken words but they nevertheless managed to convey Soppy’s most heartfelt emotions with a twitch of a hump and the flick of a head.
This is simply lovely production which combines impressive scenery and costumes with some pretty exciting pyrotechnics which will scare and delight little theatre-goers in equal proportion.
And there are sweets. Lots and lots of sweets.
The principals go through their routines with infectious verve and enthusiasm, the clever script has plenty of amusing local references and enough double entendres to keep the adults laughing – and as ever the supporting cast are impressively step-perfect.
The joy of panto is that it appeals to the child in all of us – and this production of Aladdin will certainly delight the whole family.
Geraldine Durrant
* If you haven’t booked your tickets, don’t wait any longer – several performances are now so close to sell-out that the Company of Friends have already scheduled an extra show on 30 December.
Ring 01342 302000 for the Box Office.
This article is used by kind permission from www.eastgrinsteadonline.com East Grinstead’s Community Website.