ALADDIE | GAIETY THEATRE, AYR
★★★
“Flynn is a Scottish panto legend in the making…”
Where to start? There’s much to love about Aladdie, Fraser Boyle’s latest pantomime for Ayr’s Gaiety Theatre, which relocates the story of Aladdin to the ‘Ancient Far East of Ayrshire’, but there are also moments when it misfires spectacularly.
As is traditional, Widow Twankey runs the local laundry in Old New Cumnock Town with the help of her son, Aladdie, and his wee sister, Alassie. They might be poor, but that hasn’t stopped Aladdie from falling for the daughter of the powerful Empress Oonagh, Princess Destiny, who is doing her work-experience at the family laundry.
When Abanazar, Maybole’s third most powerful wizard, arrives in town on a quest to trick Aladdie, the only person with the power to access Cumnock’s Cave of Doom and bring him the magic lamp he seeks, all that changes. From there, the story follows its usual course, albeit with one or two deliciously silly twists along the way.
Crossing to the dark side this year, it falls to Gavin Jon Wright, as Abanazar, to set the scene – and what a brilliant villain he makes. Commanding, scary, yet always with a knowing twinkle in his eye to ensure the wee ones are never too frightened, he plays the audience with a suave charm that must make him the nicest baddie around, even if he is threatening to turn everyone into scabby wee pigeons. Building an easy rapport with the audience he demonstrates a fine skill for ad-libbing as he makes the art of pantomime look easy.
Sadly, any momentum built up in his prologue, soon evaporates in a lacklustre opening medley that lacks energy and makes for a ropey start. Indeed, the slow pacing of the piece is an issue that continues throughout with overlong songs that may well drive the narrative but overstay their welcome.
Not that the cast are to blame, these principals are all good form. Lewis Kerr in the title role is a likeable, if a bit wet, hero with an impressive voice. His delivery of Lewis Capaldi’s Someone You Loved is a highpoint of the show. Likewise, Hannah Howie makes for a quite perfect Empress Oonagh. Regal, yet multi-faceted and very, very funny, It’s a lovely performance that provides the foil for Mia Musakambeva’s sassy Princess Destiny.
Fraser Boyle’s wry Widow Twanky is nicely maternal but it’s his ‘Scabby Pigeon Dance’ with Wright at the top of Act Two proves a delicious wee slice of absurdist theatre. Stealing the show, however, Ciara Flynn is a revelation as Alassie. With a tangible energy that is exciting to watch, her innate comic timing and physicality is gaspingly funny. It may be impossible to predict what she will do next, but you can guarantee it will make you laugh. Flynn is a Scottish panto legend in the making.
Of course, it’s not all laughter. There’s a lovely moment in the second act that sees Howie and Musakambeva share a mother/daughter heart to heart. It’s a beautiful, truthful moment, during which a hush descends on the audience… which brings us to the aforementioned misfires.
*For pantomime to work, you must be able to suspend disbelief. Like all theatre, the audience have to buy into the make-believe world of wonder they’re being drawn in to. That requires truth, no matter how exaggerated the antics on stage might be – that is impossible to achieve when there are not one, but two people not just signing the show, but shadowing characters, following them around the stage, at points upstaging them completely and frequently disrupting the flow of the drama. Creatively and aesthetically, it doesn’t work. It breaks the spell.
Ensuring productions are accessible to all is rightly a basic tenet of any theatre, but this well-meaning if ill-conceived device feels like trying too hard. If it’s a box-ticking exercise taken too far, then it’s a confusing one in a production that sends mixed messages elsewhere; a sketch mimicking people afflicted with a speech impediment is unexpected, and a creative choice to indicate characters under Abanazer’s hypnotic spell is disappointing.
Those concerns aside, as Aladdie eventually hits its stride it becomes ever more bonkers with each minute that passes… including a hilarious film sequence and the arrival of the Crazy Nuns Society! Yes, you read that right. All of which leaves the audience roaring their approval as the cast take their curtain call.
*Although this review is of the performance as presented on Press Night, MustSeeTheatre.com is happy to clarify that this interaction will only occur at selected performances. Please check when booking.The point still stands.
Run ends 4 January 2026 Tickets HERE
