★★★★

“this well-produced, entertaining and colourful show is perfect for anyone of any age to start engaging in live theatre”

Cambridge’s favourite dame (Matt Crosby) returns to the annual pantomime, directed by Michael Gattrell, for festive fun in an outlandish display of costumes with bad jokes, and adlibs. This year, as Gerty Goose, the Dame’s good-nature is tested with impossible-to-refuse temptations that ultimately lead to a decision that wealth and beauty do not bring happiness.

A revolving glitterball above the auditorium and flashing disco lights during the Overture set the scene (Lighting Designer Mike Robertson). Beautifully painted show cloths representing scenes of Cambridge (Set Designer Ian Westbrook) bring a familiarity to the story. Let’s not say ‘provincial’ because this production is of West End standard.

Two rivals in the battle of good over evil – Fairy Virtue (Charlotte Wakefield) and Demon Vanity (Pippa Duffy) – face off in rhyming couplets. This is all a bit static and serious and a missed opportunity for greater cringe-worthy rhyming, but Ms Wakefield raises the roof with her two solo numbers. Ms Duffy is quite a soft villain. Only minimal thunder rolls and lightening cracks at her entrances but this is no bad thing.

Alicia Belgarde as Jill Goose, the innocent girl-next-door and potential love interest, is a delight and Gemma Sutton, as principal boy Jack Purchase, beautifully spoken. Ms Sutton is just right in her thigh-slapping role, acing her solo song when it comes. Audiences will fall in love with this wonderful couple.

“Absolute highlight of the show is the ensemble”

Performance of the night – as chosen by the children brought on stage during the performance – is that of Steven Roberts as Sammy Goose. His energy, clowning and movement are all excellent, keeping the momentum between scenes. As an audience member, I found shouting “Hello, Sammy” on each entrance just fine, but the need for a regular “Sammy-Hug” is a bit icky. A running gag about a lost dog provides some good punning. Jokes about Cambridge go down particularly well. I’m not overly impressed by the repetition of business and product names which seem rather close to product placement.

Absolute highlight of the show is the ensemble (Dance Captain Sophie Karaolis). Their colourful and eye-catching costumes (Costume Designer Sue Simmerling), swirling petticoats, wide smiles and perfect moves (Choreographer Kevan Allen) are sheer joy. Life’s a Happy Song, their song and dance. Yes, it is.

The plot is pretty thin even by panto standards (Writer Al Lockhart-Morley) and the progress into the final scene isn’t really explained but it hardly matters. Some mention of the cost of living crisis is used as an early plot device but is quickly forgotten. A few topical and political jokes fall rather flat. The traditional messy slapstick scene is not as slick as it yet may become but it is funny enough and the youngsters love it. There’s no smut.

The producer states in his welcoming speech that pantomime is the “recruiting sergeant of the theatre” and with an audience of thousands to welcome through the doors this year, this well-produced, entertaining and colourful show is perfect for anyone of any age to start engaging in live theatre.

FAITH HEALER at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★★

“Paul Carroll in the title role – framing the whole and holding the play together – is excellent”

London Classic Theatre presents a revival, forty-plus years on, of Brien Friel’s well thought of play directed by Michael Cabot. Recognised by some as one of the great contemporary plays, it’s a curious piece made up of four monologues given by three characters. With no linear action to follow, the audience must piece together an understanding of what has gone before from the recollections of the three characters. Recollections that are often shady, with memories unreliable, events half-forgotten or deliberately reframed over time.

The Faith Healer of the title is Frank (Paul Carroll) – a man with a gift, or a mountebank depending on your interpretation. With his wife/mistress Grace (Gina Costigan) and Manager Teddy (Jonathan Ashley), the three of them have travelled for years across Wales and Scotland from village to village. A battered banner is displayed “The Fantastic Frank Hardy – for One Night Only”. The loudest laugh of the evening is that an earlier tagline describing Frank as “the seventh son of a seventh son” was revised because it made the poster too expensive.

A giant mirror at the rear of the stage is tilted down to reflect the floor upon which the characters pace (Set & Costume Designer Bek Palmer). Three large stone paving slabs surrounded by shingle represent the distorted shapes of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

Frank reminisces. The two other characters sit at the side of the stage, listening in. We wonder later how this can be possible so perhaps they exist here just in Frank’s memory. He points and gesticulates, picking out members of the audience – just as Frank the Faith Healer might have done in his shows of yesteryear. He is dressed respectably in a three-piece suit and trilby, that perhaps has seen better days.

Grace rises, dressed in a drab brown frock and cardigan, and takes her turn. Gina Costigan is amusingly skittish in her movements, but her vocal delivery is sometimes unclear. As she pauses midsentence and breaks the flow, the speech loses direction. With a seeming lack of emotion in describing some heartfelt things, she sadly fails to hold our attention. What we do learn though is that much of what we have heard so far might not be as straightforward as we thought.

The third monologue is from the debonair Teddy. Providing a splash of colour in his smoking jacket, yellow waistcoat and red bowtie, Jonathan Ashley confidently prowls the stage like a stand-up comedian regaling the audience of his stories of past glories. [Shades of John Osborne’s The Entertainer, here]

Brien Friel gives us four excellent examples of an unreliable narrator, more often found in the written word rather than the spoken, and the audience must draw their own conclusions as to what has really happened. But the production is uneven, three out of the four monologues are overlong, and all three actors are guilty of making unnecessary restless movements. Paul Carroll in the title role – framing the whole and holding the play together – is excellent. He commands the stage. His lilting brogue, rich in quality, rises from a near whisper to a booming baritone and has us holding on to every word.

MOTHER GOOSE at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★★★

“this well-produced, entertaining and colourful show is perfect for anyone of any age to start engaging in live theatre”

“Absolute highlight of the show is the ensemble”

MOTHER GOOSE at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

Reviewed on 5th December 2023

by Phillip Money

Photography by Richard Hubert Smith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Mother Goose

Mother Goose

FAITH HEALER at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★★

“Paul Carroll in the title role – framing the whole and holding the play together – is excellent”