Christmas Shows in West London
Reviews by Evan Rule
Richmond Theatre – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Friday 4th Dec – Sunday 10th Jan
Questors Theatre – A Christmas Carol
12th Dec – 2nd Jan
The Rose Theatre – Treasure Island
11th Dec
The Orange Tree – The Lady or the Tiger
16th Dec – 13th Feb
Christmas Shows in West London
Reviews by Evan Rule
Richmond Theatre – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Friday 4th Dec – Sunday 10th Jan
Questors Theatre – A Christmas Carol
12th Dec – 2nd Jan
The Rose Theatre – Treasure Island
11th Dec
The Orange Tree – The Lady or the Tiger
16th Dec – 13th Feb
“It’s the pantomime. I’m always stark mad as the pantomime approaches. I don’t grudge letting the rest of the company have their fling at other times – but with the panto comes my turn. Ha, ha, ha! The turn of Avonia Bunn.”
Avonia Bunn from Act Three ‘Trelawny of the Wells’ by Arthur Wing Pinero
As Christmas approaches it is time to forget the woes of the year and turn instead to some good old fashioned fun.
Pantomime was developed out of the school of the commedia dell’arte and featured Harlequin, Columbine and Pantaloon in a story that was very similar to a Punch and Judy show. It involved mime (hence pantomime) and magic, but was essentially a moral tale. In about the 1880’s, companies would put on a pre-show piece especially for children. This side piece grew and grew to become what we would now recognise as a traditional panto. They used a variety of sources for the piece, but relied heavily on children’s fairy stories, many of which came from the brothers Grimm, but would involve a Dame (a character actor dressed up as woman) a principal boy (a young woman showing her legs) a young girl in distress, comedians, magicians, singers and dancers and a magical set, there to enchant the furtive imagination of the young festive theatregoers. As Avonia Bunn remarked, a time to go stark mad!
Straight out of that comes the offering from Richmond Theatre, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. Richmond Theatre is a real home for pantomime, this is its 134th production during 110 year history and it does not disappoint. Jane Asher, a mere scamp of a girl in Alfie, makes a remarkably good, but very evil Wicked Queen. She loved that banter with the audience. Much of the show is carried by Tim Vine as Muddles, Jonathan Shotton as the Queen’s Magician and Stephen David as Nurse Nora. Tim Vine is superb, he is a very fast comedian and his jokes trip out at a remarkable speed and were paced and levelled at the right pitch for this young audience. Jonathan Shotton gives us some very nice magical tricks but also gives us a very impressive illusion of levitating the Wicked Queen before making Jane Asher disappear in a puff of smoke. Even more magically is the performance of Stephen David as Nurse Nora, costume after costume appears in rapid succession. The love interest is supplied by David Gale as the Prince and Sapphire Elia as Snow White and both give very creditable performances, but Snow White, the panto is always about the Dwarfs and this is a very accomplished bunch of Dwarfs. Richmond has yet again supplied us with a good old fashioned pantomime and the audience reflected its past history of providing us with such Christmas fare.
The Rose Theatre has a very short history and is trying to build a reputation of providing a child centred Christmas play. This year they take us to the adventure of ‘Treasure Island’, adapted by Karen Louise Hebden. Robert Louis Stevenson knew a great deal about the sea, his family were very instrumental in developing the lighthouse network in the British Isles and his book is a very dark tale, scary in places, but full of adventure and introduces some of the darkest characters in English literature, Blind Pew, Black Dog and the incomparable Long John Silver. Silver is a very convoluted character, totally ruthless, conniving, treacherous and yet totally protective of the young Jim Hawkins. Richard Bremmer takes on this mantle of Silver with great aplomb. There are some very fine performances in general and in particular from Peter Forbes as Dr Livesey and Daniel Goode as Squire Trelawney. Special mention must be made of Keith Dunphy and his Ben Gunn which was absolutely first class. The set was an imposing statement and it was quickly transformed from Inn to Dockside to Ship to Treasure Island. I did find the songs, however nicely sung and performed, slow and I do think a play, aimed at a young audience does need to keep up a fairly fast pace and when it slows, it needs to slow for a very good reason. Despite the slow songs this is a very good production and I am sure that it will help The Rose to build an excellent reputation for providing quality Christmas plays.
Questor’s Theatre in Ealing is another venue that provides us with a child centred Christmas play. This year they go back to before Christmas had been invented to give us ‘A Christmas Carol’, the Dickens’ classic adapted by John Mortimer. I say invented as Christmas in early Victorian times was a very low key affair and Dickens gave us a very cruel tale of how our miserly and uncharitable lives affects us in our past present and future. The book was instrumental in changing Christmas to a joyous holiday where we do think and care for the unfortunate in society, even if it was only for a day or so. Richard Gallagher gives us a wickedly twisted Ebenezer Scrooge and there are some very strong performances from Robert Baker-Glenn and Richard Brown. I did find some parts of this production a bit slow and clunky. The set however was a magnificent Alex Marker (A Plague over England) effort and it was almost worth it to see the set.
For the adults, Questors also provides us with Tom Stoppard’s ‘Rock and Roll’ in their studio.
The Orange Tree Theatre returns to an old favourite of theirs ‘The Lady or the Tiger’. Originally this show was developed when the Orange Tree was a room above the pub. I will add a review when I have had the chance to see the show, but knowing Sam Waters work it will be a show worth watching.
Reviewed by Evan Rule
