Peter Pan
Pavilion, Dún Laoghaire
by Hilary Fannin
ON ST Stephen's Day the Pavilion Theatre opened its gleaming doors to a bevy of spruce youngsters in velvet pinafores and shiny shoes, dragging exhausted parents in their clamorous wake, for Martin Murphy's adaptation of JM Barrie's classic parable of loss, Peter Pan.
The tale is a tough little sprite to capture within the confines of a proscenium, especially when many members of the audience, despite their tender years, have swashbuckling expectations fuelled by their experience of film adaptations and animations. Making this majestic, feverishly busy fantasy work in a theatrical setting is a big, though potentially exhilarating, challenge, one made even more difficult on this occasion by having a cast limited to a mere five actors.
The young performers work their long-johns off, however, and some of the staging is ingenious, including a clever flying sequence and lots of tumbling through hidden portholes and leaping about with cutlasses on Marcus Costello's surprisingly resourceful and imaginative set. Among them, Ciarán O'Brien and Kelly Shatter, who play multifarious pirates and pyjama-ed Darlings, and Simon Coury, as a villainous Hook, should certainly be spared the plank, showing inexhaustible energy and all-round good humour as the children bounced in their seats and chewed their kiss curls while weary fathers attempted a nap and mothers rooted in their bags for staying-in-your-seat provisions.
Watching the show very early in its run, it seemed a little tentative and somewhat over-wordy, while its 2½ hour running time, including an interval, felt excessive. Doubtless, however, the show will tighten up over a few performances and the cast will stretch to fulfil director David Horan's intentions and the promise of the staging. But parents of younger children may be advised to pack the Jelly Tots.
• Until January 18th
Sleeping Beauty
Civic Theatre, Tallaght
by Gerry Colgan
The extremes of successful pantomime range from spectacular and lavish to small-scale but very funny, if not beautiful. Ulster Theatre Company's version of Sleeping Beauty (book Michael Poynor, music Mark Dougherty) falls somewhere in the middle.
The set is competently designed with a few large standing pieces of scenery, the songs are functional jingles, dance routines are limited to some basic, well-drilled moving to music, and costumes are so-so.
A cast of eight do their energetic best to enliven a script that has few highlights. The bones of the traditional tale are there for them to chew on. The fat King and Queen Amnesia have a baby, a little girl who is promptly placed under a spell by evil witch Spectra. A good fairy puts a stay on the curse, eventually to be removed by the kiss of a noble prince. Nothing very innovative there.
An attempt is made to soup up the action with slapstick and some self-conscious vulgarity, as in a sketch about the changing of soiled nappies and another involving thunderous fart jokes. An old-fashioned singalong imposed on a divided audience goes down well, indicating that more interactive stage business would be welcome. There is one comic in the cast who plays the role of child-minder Nanny O'Business (spot the clunky pun?) and can sing and slap-stick with the best of them, a natural Pantomime Dame.
This is panto for suburbia rather than Main Street. At the curtain, there was a sense of adults being ho-hum about the proceedings, while children - the younger the better - quite enjoyed them. No programme was available, so the better performers will have to share this appreciation with colleagues.
• Runs to January 4th
Snow White and the Seven Delinquents
Black Box Theatre, Galway
by Lorna Siggins
A mirror with job satisfaction issues and no union, a queen obsessed with image, and a pretty young homeless woman who is rescued by seven street kids with behavioural issues - no one could accuse Performing Arts School Galway (PASG) of indulging in escapism in this year's pantomime. There are allusions a-plenty to the R-word and several odes to the Celtic cat in Maeve Ingoldsby's racy script, which is never short on laughs for all that. Pig farmers, Progressive Democrat supporters and bankers be warned - current events are mined to the core, and sensitivities are not spared.
Mind you, PASG's team of professional and amateur actors have their work cut out. This is a city that not only hosts a leading international arts festival, but also showcases some of Europe's finest children's theatre every year in Baboró. There's also a loyal following for the amateur Renmore Pantomime Society which is about to celebrate its 30th birthday, while the Taibhdhearc theatre's panto as Gaeilge hits the ground long before Christmas. Still, the troupe of up to 75 children and young teenagers directed by Jessica Curtis has risen to the challenge posed by the barn-like Black Box, making the most of copious space for Paula McGurrell's choreography, Gavin Morgan's set and stunning costumes by Triona Lillis.
Fiachra Ó Dubhghaill, all big hair and shapely ankles as the Dame, is a perfect foil for Ciarán Mooney's silly courtier, Billy, while Ana Mahe is a natural as the doe-eyed Snow White. Hilary O'Shaughnessy raises the bar for badness with her fiendish queen, and Deborah Wiseman excels as a mirror with more than reflective ambitions. Gillian Bogan, all energy, character and one terrific voice, is a most aptly named Bullseye. Her fellow delinquents, including Lanky (Josh Ronayne), Cranky (Glen Hunt), Hot Wire (Michelle Cahill/Jack O'Connor), along with the tots, junior and senior dancers, appear to enjoy every minute on stage. Musical direction and accompaniment is by Ger Madden, Ronan Dooney and Barry Duffy.
PASG deserved a far busier house on Sunday night, having opened with a packed matinee. Yet courtier and dame, Mooney and Ó Dubhghaill, still managed to rouse those present into some ritual roaring across the aisles before home time . . . Oh no they didn't, oh yes, they did.
• Until Sunday, January 4th.
