BALTIC | CUMBERNAULD THEATRE
★★★
“… a nice line in interactive storytelling…”
Packed with classic panto gags and routines that engage from the off and elicit screams of excitement and delight from the kids in the audience all through the show, Baltic has the makings of a gem of a pantomime.
Based very loosely on the story of The Snow Queen, when siblings Elspeth and Kai go playing in the snowy surrounds of the village of Glenfrost, they encounter the Chilblain, the Snow Queen, who kidnaps Kai and inadvertently awakens Elspeth’s latent magical powers that mark her out as a future Snow Queen.
Years pass but while Dame Agnes Avalunch, Elspeth and Kai’s mammy, prepares for her 18th birthday party, Elspeth and her best pal Sammy Slush set off on a mission to find and rescue Kai from Chilblain and her crafty sidekick, Jack Frost, a quest that introduces them to a whole host of new friends along the way, including Nolaff the noseless ‘Snowman’, a pack of troublesome trolls and a giant abominable snowman.
With a nice line in interactive storytelling, lots of local references from the off when Good Morning Baltimore Cumbernauld opens the show, an enthusiastic young chorus and a strong principal cast, there’s much to cheer.
Writer and director Jerry Taylor also keeps things moving on stage as Sammy Slush, Glenfrost’s cheeky chappie and Elspeth’s best pal. It’s Taylor’s expertly executed warm-up routine at the top of the show that gets the audience onboard and makes them as much a part of the action as the cast – in particular, his hilarious Who Wants A Drink routine literally has the kids screaming for more.
Taylor receives great support from Alex Robertson’s game old dame, Agnes Avalunch might be the archetypal rough and ready west coast wifey but she has a heart of gold, Lauren O’Hare, as a charming and determined Elspeth, and Kathleen McCleaghan, who has many a scene-stealing comedy moments as Nolaff.
Elsewhere, Milly Sweeney’s Jack Frost impresses with an energised delivery of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, while Abbie Watson’s Chilblain is effortlessly bad. In her offstage roles as choreographer and musical director, Watson makes good use of the young chorus in dance numbers and demonstrates a good ear for a panto anthem. It’s also good to see a pantomime resurrecting an old favourite, the UV ballet, featuring the show’s three dancers, Erin Scanlan, Nathan Ferguson and Isla Gordon, as skeletons.
So far so good, but unfortunately, this panto from Ginger and Jester Productions also proves you can indeed have too much of a good thing. Some judicious editing could easily add another star to the rating. Billed as two hours, at this performance it runs 25 minutes over (not including the interval) and there appears to be three main reasons why; many of the musical numbers are far too long, scene changes often spoil the flow of the piece, and some set pieces are allowed to ramble on.
Not that the audience seemed too concerned, they remained more responsive and engaged than many in pantoland throughout, not least when called upon to help defeat the Snow Queen in a snowball fight ensuring that, in this action-packed tale of friendship, good triumphs not so much over evil, as over the misunderstood Chilblain.
Run ends 24 December Tickets HERE
