A Small Mind At The Theatre

Five years ago, I hadn't seen a panto since I was the proper kiddie age to appreciate them, and they hadn't been something missing in my life really. Even the first few I saw as a grown-up left me mostly cold, and teeth gritted at the whole experience. However, I have now seen rather a lot of them, supporting the many groups and collections of actors that I follow, and have started to acknowledge their importance in the theatre world for both actor and first theatre contact for many a person and more importantly, child. Last year, the University of Northampton BA Actors course also got in on the act, introducing Christmas shows to the mix, one of which was a pantomime, of variable quality, as the course itself got to grips with the situation. This year, they return to take up the challenge once again, and clearly having learnt much from last year's first attempt, bring a much more solid and smoother show to the stage, with Suzan Holder's version of Aladin direc...

Pantomimes have mostly held that special place in my heart, alongside William Shakespeare plays of all things, in that as a theatre completist, I tend to tolerate them, rather than always enjoy them. As well as tolerate though, I also appreciate when they have been performed extremely well. They may be very different beasts, but I acknowledge that both have that intense challenge for their performers, especially with panto and dealing with them pesky kids in the audience. Aladdin though handles nearly everything with so much success that, even this hardy panto-sceptic had to concede to really rather enjoying it. It is true that 90% of the enjoyment for me was coming from one direction, and that was with Kev Orkian's rather incredible performance as Wishee Washee. Rarely have I seen a performer steal every scene, and indeed a show, to such as extent (and this is allowing for the fact that pretty much everyone else in this is also pretty good as well). His timing is exe...