It's panto time again. Oh yes it is! Happy Easter. The Customs House is presenting a firm favourite, Little Red Riding Hood, for a week. It is ten years since they first did it, but it is still as popular as ever. It includes a selection of costumes and cloth designs from the original production and other pantos by award-winning design team Fox and Shriek.
The show starts with a bang, a barrage of lights (John Rainsforth) all enveloping sound (Jordon Embleton) and one of the baddies. Madame Bracken (Eleanor Chaganis) takes centre stage amid a smoke-filled atmosphere and you are off. She is joined by fellow ‘baddie’ Wolfgang (Dale Jewitt). The children are instantly involved and hooked, having something to react to. The evil Madame of the ‘deep dark forest’ has lost her magic red cape and Wolfgang sets off to find it. This is followed by the other side of the coin, colour, light, dance and all things nice, introducing the ‘goodies’ in a wonderful number.
The Dame, Grannie Hood (Tom Whalley), is next, and a whole different ball game, big, bold and brassy with lots of double entendres, all delivered to perfection, which the adults love. The three pigs are ‘sausages’, Bratwurst (Thomas Hewitt), Chorizo (Lucy Davis) and Saveloy (Aiden Nord), each with their own character and accent, adding humour; last but not least is favourite Cousin Dennis (Glen Richard Townsend), the children’s friend.
The plot follows the traditional story faithfully with the usual ‘Cookson’ twist. It has all the familiar pantomime ingredients: two central ‘normal’ characters, Prince William Chopolot (Suryan Hadrick) and his love Little Red Riding Hood (Beth Ellis), while the rest are all larger-than-life and mostly over-the-top, which delights the audience, it’s behind you, oh no it isn’t and the inevitable slop scene. As Grannie Hood said, “before this child explodes" as they were all so completely involved with the show, jumping up and down, gesticulating, shouting and having the time of their lives.
It has a terrific script by Ray Spencer and Graeme Thompson, talented cast, gorgeous costumes (David Gibson), fabulous wigs, great lighting, sound and topping choreography by Jacqui West and her South Tyneside Workshop. There are some great musical numbers (Jen Stevens), such as "It’s My Life" and a duet with Hadrick and Ellis. As with any recipe, great ingredients in the wrong hands can still be a failure; not so here. The directorial hand of Steven Lee Hamilton combines all the components beautifully. Well known for his acting and singing skills, Hamilton has turned his talents to direction, this being his first piece, and has carried it out brilliantly.
Pantomime has become an entrenched favourite with at least three different ones a year. Marvellous a tradition is being set which gets families all going to a theatre and live performance together. Amazingly,, there are still a few tickets left but they will soon be gone so buy them now. I have seen and been involved with a lot of pantomimes, and this is up there with the best of them. If you enjoy quality live entertainment, especially in the company of your family, then you must see this show—you will see no better.