Why to see Mother Goose for the panto-haters
In that far long pre-pandemic era of 2017 I went to see the Peter Pan pantomime. I am not from the UK. When I came across the word ‘pantomime’ it immediately conjured up images of Commedia dell’arte – mimed Harlequinades filled with music and lots of slapstick and tomfoolery. So you might appreciate why I had not been prepared to be faced with crass humour and the Jolly Roger galleon sailing around the arena in front of a 10,000-gallon water wall. I took a solemn vow never to go to see a panto again.
And yet this year I broke that promise – I broke it for Sir Ian McKellen. Having seen Sir Ian in plays like No man’s land and his amazing one man show Ian McKellen on Stage: With Tolkien, Shakespeare, Others and YOU no way was I going to miss out on the opportunity to see him perform, even if it meant suffering through a panto one more time.
But suffering it was not. It was pure unadulterated fun – with the two vodka lemonades I had over the duration a welcome addition. Yes, there was a bit of crass humour – but actually not that much. There was just enough political humour (a ‘spitting image’ style pig called Boris frantically wanting its cake), woke humour (a llama identifying as a donkey) and typical slapstick. Strong voices, great costumes (loved the cricket in the cricket shin pads), sing-alongs, chocolates thrown around and all the rest that you would expect. Does the plot fully make sense? Probably not. Does that matter? Absolutely not.
Either you like this, or you don’t – but Sir Ian was just superb and will not disappoint – doing anything but taking himself seriously, seeing orcs everywhere, strutting around in drag. Utterly brilliant. Maybe I am a little naïve, but watching this show enfold on stage, I truly believed that the cast was having a whale of a time. And therefore, so was I.