Kristmas With The Kringles is a very clever show. Though it is improvised, and therefore relies heavily upon spontaneity and chance accident, it is artfully structured around the format of a corny American TV show . . . They quickly establish a rapport with the audience, and their ability to think on their feet is hugely impressive. Kristmas With The Kringles is good late-night Yuletide fun
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The Old Vic rounds off its 250th year with a magical retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s tale, which director Lee Lyford describes as an epic emotional journey as well as a physical one. Gerda’s quest to save her childhood friend Kai has contemporary resonances with other leading female roles such as Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games, or Hermione Granger in Harry Potter . . . But a breathless second half, in which the baddies (always the best) really get going, makes for a barnstorming holiday show.
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I have some stern advice: if you are thinking of taking a young person, who has never been to the theatre before, to see the Christmas show at the Tobacco Factory – DON’T! If you do they are likely to come away with the wrong impression: they may think that all theatre is this inventive . . . No, think twice before you bring anybody to this production for I warn you – no good will come of it.
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Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Scrooge, and I suppose when it comes to Christmas theatre, I can become a bit Scrooge-y; I have no patience for pantomime – give me a nice true-to-the-book adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and I’ll be happy, but try throwing in some ‘O, yes, you did’, ‘O, no, I didn’t!’ banter and I’m out of there.
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Tom Wells is the owner of that most treasured of attributes for a playwright, the gift of metaphor. Broken Biscuits is set in the garden shed (carefully envisioned in Lily Arnold’s evocative set) of Megan who is the new owner of a second hand drum set and plans to mould her friends, Holly and Ben into a group in the unrealistic timescale of eight weeks so as to enter a ’battle of the bands’ competition.
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This year’s panto, Jack and the Beanstalk, is the current one of the rotating cycle of five titles which the Everyman produces and is much better than the previous one in 2011. What I like about Phil Clark’s pantomimes is that he eschews the tried (tired?) and tested formula of employing some obscure celebrity off the telly that no-one has ever heard of to appear in his shows in favour of real actors – and his shows are all the better for that.
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