REVIEW: Dick Whittington, The Attic Theatre, Stratford, until 7th January
REVIEW: Dick Whittington, The Attic Theatre, Stratford, until 7th January
By Peter Buckroyd. Pnotos: Andrew Maguire
IT’S panto time again and Tread the Boards company is presenting Dick Whittington, this year’s cast of eight directed by John-Robert Partridge. Regular Attic panto visitors will see some new faces but they work splendidly together and provide excellent entertainment.
Most people will know that Dick Whittington went to London with his cat to make his fortune because purportedly London’s streets are paved with gold. He did so well that he became mayor of London.
Keith Myers’s play script includes this but pays little attention to it. Instead, the focus is on Sarah the Cook, played by rookie Pantomime Dame Joshua Chandos, and her son, Idle Jack, played energetically by Dominic Selvey, he of the wonderfully expressive face and rubber mouth.
The baddie is Edd Conroy’s King Rat who appears apparently randomly and is great fun. Another character who makes what seem to be random appearances is Emily Tietz’s Fairy Bowbells. In contrast to these four larger than life characters, Dick himself (James Taheny) is a rather sweet, rather wimpish character, suitably paired up with Georgia Ashford-Miller’s Alice at the end without any clear evidence of romance but with a very nicely sung duet.
It will be clear that the interest of this production is not in the extremely thin plot but in the pantomime routines, always huge fun partly because many of them are repeated year after year in the Attic pantomime, regardless of the title of the play. This year these are supplemented by the cat, wonderfully played by Florence Sherratt, interacting with the audience, using movement and noises to communicate rather than words and lovely to look at.
There are lots of song-and-dance routines, many of them to amusingly familiar songs. The singing of Dick and Alice is particularly strong. The singing throughout is good and all the more effective for not being miked.
This is a splendid way of joining in with the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, the Attic’s ticket provider has made some chaotic bungles by miscounting what it has sold and even more unfortunately Tread the Boards and John-Robert Partridge have received uncalled for abuse for the agent’s error. This bungle requires patience, understanding and a dose of the Christmas spirit which apparently several Stratford residents are completely lacking in. Shame on them.