This was my first visit to the closest professional producing theatre to my home, Tara Arts, in their lovely newly renovated theatre. It’s probably about as far as you can get in scale from my other panto this year, at Hackney Empire. Six actors and three musicians with a Bollywood spin on Jack & the Beanstalk!
Zak (Jack), our principal boy, lives with his mum Dame Mrs Moowallah and her cow Moomoo in a 5th floor flat on a local estate! They’re behind with the rent and the Landlord, Hubble-Bubble the giant, has sent his enforcer Conman to threaten them. Zak falls for broadband engineer Zeta, but Conman requisitions her for the big boss, who’s not content with Wify. In addition to the cow, who Hubble-Bubble eats, there’s a chicken called Fingerlicken! Zak sells the cow for the beans, climbs the stalk to get a gold coin and a golden egg, good overcomes bad and it all ends happily.
I liked the intimate scale, the costumes are terrific (incorporating udders for Moomoo and rubber gloves for Fingerlicken!), the performances charming (except the baddies, obviously), though 4-year-old Dennis from the audience almost stole the show, and I learnt a Bollywood move or two. All the usual ingredients are there (well, apart from a song-sheet, which would have helped me remember the seventeen varieties of beans in the song!) and the audience participation was particularly spontaneous and forthcoming.
A lovely end to the Christmas season. Now time to get back to real baddies……
Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog 
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