For the past 10 years, a Roger Hall pantomime has been standard fare for Circa Theatre’s end-of-year production.  

And while based on a very English form of entertainment, Hall makes them sufficiently topical to resonate with locals young and old.

And this year’s production of Jack and the Beanstalk is no exception and could well be considered to be up there with the best of them. [More] 

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As my family and I settle into our seats for our first Circa panto all together, I chuckle delightedly as I hear a child behind us saying to his Dad, “I think Mr Maker made those”. This is in reference to Ian Harman’s set design which consists of four suspended fluffy clouds, a caravan facade with a ‘70s style quilted bedspread exterior and a patchwork back drop that my daughter thinks is like a sunrise to the sky.

In a nearby village which has recently changed its name to Lester-ville, we meet Jack (Barnaby Olsen), a dreamer and wanna-be poet in his rainbow unicorn t-shirt and dungarees singing about the wonders of the country sounds in the morning and his love for Smiley Virus (Jessica Old). This tranquil scene is interrupted by his mother, Hilda Hardup (Gavin Rutherford) giving a rather different picture in ‘Don’t Live in a Village’ where we discover she is (surprise surprise) “a poor widow woman”. Awwwww …

Cue the flow of topical jokes and the panto tradition of delivering the news of the time through the updating and ad-libbing of the script from town to town. Everything from local to international politics: the ever growing divide between rich and poor, mean-spirited landlords, several digs at large corporations, and parliamentarians are scoffed at, ridiculed and hung out to dry. It’s a music theatre mash up of the puppets in the back bencher and Tom Scott cartoons with the all-important repartee with the crowd.

So to the dilemma of how to get money to pay the rent to landlord Nora Virus (Emma Kinane) and the debt with Bob – “Can we kill it?” – the Butcher (Andrew Laing) so that the repo-man, a tragically comical mute clown (Jonathan Morgan), stops repossessing everything. This is where the udderly (ba dum tish) divine Betsy the Cow (Bronwyn Turei) is sold for magic beans which give access to Giant-land where the story wanders a little but in the end there is happiness a plenty – except perhaps for the Giant.

In true pantomime fashion this show relishes in the right amount of absurdity and innuendo that makes one laugh uproariously, occasionally squirm with discomfort and theatrically groan with the cliché of it all.

The basic folktale is padded out heavily with back story, through story, love interests and extra fantastical characters with much for the younger audience members to enjoy and stay hooked in with the story they know.

Paul Jenden’s clever song lyrics complement and at times overshadow Roger Hall’s script which sometimes has a dated feel to it, but after the week Wellingtonians have had, we’re certainly ready for a good laugh.

Musical director Michael Nicholas Williams is the one man band, sound effect machine, and composer and, as always, writes fun, stylistic accompaniments with leitmotifs for the knowing; I particularly love the sneaky Sweeney Todd reference. The singing is excellent and very strong right across the cast, with great vocal colour, and appropriate pastiche sound as needed.

Artistically lit by Jennifer Lal, costumed by Sheila Horton and choreographed by Leigh Evans, the camaraderie of the cast under the guidance of director Susan Wilson is evident throughout and all deliver fantastic performances with the right amount of milking (excuse the pun) the script.  

This production really is a fun family night out with something for all ages. Watching my young children cracking up at many jokes – some of which were luckily totally over their heads – is what live theatre is all about and of course the chance to leap up on stage for the pantomime whirl. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer