EWAN CAMERON picks out two fascinating music shows, fusing the Korean, and the Celtic, with the modern
Action-packed Aladdin ticks all the Christmas boxes
Show-stealer: Robin Simpson in Aladdin
[Anthony Robling]
BENJAMIN POTHIER suggests that Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain point to the ceremonial use of hallucinogenic flora
The bard confirms that the right has a humour bypass, and replays the English Revolution on period instruments
MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Sunny Dancer, Tony, Songs of Forgotten Trees, and The End of Oak Street
JOHN GREEN relishes a powerful and moving drama that explores the lived realities of west London’s Punjabi community
MARTIN HALL welcomes a plea for greater compassion between believer and non-believer via the framework of philosophical enquiry
Aladdin
Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield
ALADDIN could be used as a case study on how to stage a traditional pantomime, especially in the hands of Andrew Pollard, who draws on two decades of experience by packing the script with audience participation, innuendo and slapstick — a farting panda called Ping-Pong features prominently.
Played out on a glittery stage that resembles an outsize Yangtze board game, the show sparkles with enthusiastic choreography and updated musical numbers — Widow Twankey delivers Dolly Parton's hit as Washing 9 to 5 — and there's a spot of impressive illusion as Thomas Cotran's Aladdin takes a ride on a glowing magic carpet to Egypt.
The action brims with the usual topical jokes, including the compulsory ones aimed at Brexit and puns on local reference points. But Pollard's script, his third for Lawrence Batley Theatre, distinguishes itself by updating female characters for modern times.
Similar stories
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
SYLVIA HIKINS relishes Jeanette Winterson’s brilliant hijack of 1001 Nights to push aside the boundaries set by others
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship