Hall for Cornwall: Aladdin

 Before I start, I just want to be really clea, we loved it and we had a great evening.  We would recommend Hall for Cornwall's panto to anyone.  It's a real feel good show, with great effects and plenty of laughs.  Really lovely for the whole family.  Looking forward to next years Dick Whittington and his Mousehole Cat.  We already have tickets.

So why am I saying this first up?  Well, in comparison to last years Jack and the Beanstalk, it wasn't quite as good.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about why and I don't know that I have fully nailed it down.

British panto has a lot of aspects that you expect to see, certain tropes.  You expect a dame, who is a man dressed as a woman.  You expect a baddie to boo and hiss at.  Then there is the whole, they're behind you and also the oh yes they are, oh no they are not.  There will be some singing with a competition between the two sides of the theatre.  There will be a pantomime horse.  It's part of the fun, participating in all of this as an audience member.

So it doesn't matter that some bits are the same.  Those bits are panto.  

Edward Rowe aka Kernow King, is a Cornish comedian who has more recently turned his hand to acting and played the dame, Widow Twerky.  He played rugby and is easily the tallest person on stage and with his beard and booming voice, there is no way anyone would mistake him for a woman.  His costumes are amazing.  This year there was a laundry theme and he had a hat featuring a washing machine, a dress with a bottle of Manish and decorations of bubbles, soap in plastic twists and clothes line complete with clothes and pegs.  Yes some of his jokes are recycled, but that's fine too.  We saw him years ago in Falmouth and the best jokes remain funny and referencing them is comfortable somehow.  So it was still great to hear references to Roche, having the 'Alright?', 'yeah, you?', 'yeah' conversation with the audience - still good.  And the panto specific bits like flirting with male audience members, still funny.

The special effects were great.  Lots of puffs of smoke and fountains of sparks.  I loved seeing people playing with the streamers.  Then of course there are the super soakers aimed at the audience.  Don't sit in the front rows if you want to stay dry....  There were kids in the aisles begging to be hit though and they were very cute.  The best though was absolutely the magic carpet ride, just amazing!  

I think the genie was a missed opportunity however.  Yes it was lovely having the voice of Dawn French and she is great...  The genie is such a huge and humorous part of many productions though and if I think of the genie, its hard not to think of Robin Williams.  We did however have the Spirit of the Ring and she was great.  The villain was also great but I think she could have done with some henchpeople to bounce off.  They could then have also spread some more chaos and mayhem then too...

So this why it's so hard to pin down what the issue was, because so much of it was great.  I loved Warren, the tap dancing pastie.  I loved the references to places around the world named after places in Cornwall.  I laughed.  I think that the story of Aladdin didn't work quite so well perhaps and it ended up being a little weak in places.  It was carried along by Widow Twerky and all the panto fun.  I also missed the street savvy Aladdin and found the character of this more humorous Aladdin slightly bland.  Maybe a straightman would have been useful against the humour of his brother Willy and his mother, Widow Twerky.

The speaking cast was actually pretty small.  Just Aladdin, Jasmine, Willy, Widow Twerky, the Spirit of the Ring and Jasmine's Mum, I am not going to attempt to spell her name....  I think they could have given a few more lines to the supporting cast.  It wasn't that they didn't feature.  The french chef was so cute!  and of course Warren.  I loved their dance when the Spirit of the Ring first appeared and the ship dance was great.

So yes, it was great!  Truly!  I just don't think Aladdin is my favourite panto and I don't think it worked quite as well as Jack and the Giant Beanstalk.  I am really looking forward to Dick Whittington and his Mousehole Cat next year.


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