25 November – 8 January

So what makes a great pantomime?  A festive, family-friendly fusion of fun, frivolity and frolics…? An energetic and engaging extravaganza with a mix of music, dance and audience participation…? A generous sprinkling of crossover humour and innuendo to keep adults in the audience laughing…? The Everyman Theatre’s panto offering this year, “Dick Whittington and His Cat Tweedy”, successfully and hilariously blends all three of these approaches, and is guaranteed to send the audience home this Christmas-time with a huge festive smile on their face.

Writers and co-directors Sam Holmes and Nick Winston have once again combined their considerable creative talents to bring us a show with a local flavour, as Dick Whittington, (Cleve September), embarks on a journey from nearby Pauntley to London in search of streets paved with gold….as the real Dick Whittington did in the late 1300s. He is accompanied, of course, by his cat, the wonderfully irrepressible Tweedy in his tenth panto at the Everyman, with the love interest provided by Phoebe Samuel-Gray’s Alice Fitzwarren, daughter of Marc Zayat’s local Alderman, who doubles as the Sultan of Morocco. They are thwarted in their adventures by the deliciously evil Queen Rat, played with real relish by the fabulous Lara Denning. This being panto, Kevin Brewis’ Sarah the Cook gamely provides the customary damely humour, sporting an increasingly outlandish range of costumes in the process, whilst Holmes also excels as Fairy Bow Bells, with both characters knitting together an admittedly paper-thin plotline and keeping the audience entertained between the scenes….and the front row nervously on the edge of their seats.

Visually, the show looks fantastic too. The hydraulic ship which ‘crosses’ the Mediterranean to Morocco is an hilarious triumph, and whilst this year’s offering may lack the expensive but visually grandiose and technically ambitious set-pieces of previous years, the staging and backdrops are imaginative and professional. A talented dance ensemble adds energy, pace and flair to a range of musical offerings, including Queen Rat’s vibrant “Don’t Stop Me Now” and the whole show barrels along with plenty of slapstick, silliness and a huge sense of energetic fun.

If you’re looking for sexual innuendo in your festive theatre trip, the Everyman’s panto this year will certainly give you one. Several, in fact. So much so, it feels like they are shoehorned into the script rather too frequently for a younger audience, but they will make you grimace, groan and giggle in equal measure – this is a panto after all. Furthermore, and all credit to the production team, there are plenty of school-friendly performances with an adapted script for a younger audience.

Queen Rat, Fairy Bow Bells, Sarah and Tweedy undoubtedly steal the show, but in truth, this is a wonderfully entertaining performance from a talented cast. If you want to take the whole family, go for the 10.00am and 2.00pm midweek performances. However, if you like your pantomime with more than a dash of the risqué and some festive sauciness, get your hands on some evening tickets if you can.

★★★★☆  Tony Clarke  22^nd December, 2022

Photo credit: Antony Thompson