Jack and the Beanstalk
Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield

PANTOMIMES are the first time that many children get to experience the magic of the theatre and, based on the level of joyful interaction during Joyce Branagh’s version of Jack And The Beanstalk, it won’t be the last time for those present.

It's loosely based on the fairytale of a boy who sells the family cow in exchange for a bag of magic beans and there's enough well-timed slapstick and topical gags to make it rise above the purely formulaic.

Mark Walters’s framed set design resembles a giant children’s storybook with its bold colours and lashings of glitter. Yet even this is outshone by the costumes of Dame Dorothy Trott (Robin Simpson) which become increasingly absurd and disconnected to the plot — at one point, he's dressed as a cross between a Swiss army knife and medieval knight.