7 December – 7 January

The folk tale of the princess magically forced into sleep has deep roots in European culture. A sleeping princess is found in Scandinavian and Germanic traditions where at some stage she goes under the name of Brunhild, a valkyrie. In these versions she is depicted as a warrior and in the Scandinavian version is woken with a kiss whilst sleeping in a suit of armour – as befits a shield-maiden. In a 16^th century Italian version a wandering prince enters the sleeping castle, finds the royal bedchamber and lies with the princess (ahem) who wakes up some time later to find herself a mother having given birth whilst still unconscious. Other versions detail the married life of the princess and prince in which yet another malign woman from the prince’s past who orders the cook to stick their children in the cooking pot and serve them up. The cook makes a switch and they all live happily ever after. All of which leads us to the sanitized, seasonal silliness that is the British pantomime version, which comes to us via Perrault who in turn was the source for the brothers Grimm.

Jon Monie, the writer of the Theatre Royal Bath’s Christmas offering, knows better than to leave any trace of gloom or nastiness in a Christmas show and I mention the cultural history simply to show how deeply such fairy tales, or more accurately in this case folk tales, are embedded in our tradition. Pantomimes are for magic, love, happiness and that particular brand of tomfoolery that requires a certain talent for communicating directly with an audience. Mr Monie has done enough pantomimes as an actor as well as writer to know what works, what’s in and what’s out. His tongue-in-cheek asides and quick fire quips are the product of hard earned experience. It was also nice to hear much of the script delivered in rhyme.

This year he is again working with Nick Wilton, by now an experienced Dame, and a cast of experienced actors. It was good to find in Neil McDermott a Prince Vincent who was prepared to get himself in the right theatrical frame of mind and send himself up at every opportunity. Clip-clopping on Holy Grail-like with a couple of coconut shells set him up nicely as a prince with working funny-bone.

Emma Norman was having a whale of a time as the nasty Fairy Carabosse who was continuously excitable at the thought of her own beastliness. Flying on with grace and style was Sarah Jane Buckley as Fairy Snowfall. Glowing with charm as actor and singer, Maisie Sellwood was the perfect innocent princess on the verge of adulthood. David Pendlebury found just the right note of protective dottiness as the king.

Special mention has to go to the young dancers from the Dorothy Coleborn School of Dance who were very well rehearsed and beamed with joy at being on a professional stage.

This is a traditional panto with all the colour, music and fun you could want from a trip to the theatre with your family.

★★★★☆   Graham Wyles   9 December 2023 

Photo credit: Freia Turland