MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Action-packed Aladdin ticks all the Christmas boxes
Show-stealer: Robin Simpson in Aladdin
[Anthony Robling]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
Aladdin
Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield
ALADDIN could be used as a case study on how to stage a traditional pantomime, especially in the hands of Andrew Pollard, who draws on two decades of experience by packing the script with audience participation, innuendo and slapstick — a farting panda called Ping-Pong features prominently.
Played out on a glittery stage that resembles an outsize Yangtze board game, the show sparkles with enthusiastic choreography and updated musical numbers — Widow Twankey delivers Dolly Parton's hit as Washing 9 to 5 — and there's a spot of impressive illusion as Thomas Cotran's Aladdin takes a ride on a glowing magic carpet to Egypt.
The action brims with the usual topical jokes, including the compulsory ones aimed at Brexit and puns on local reference points. But Pollard's script, his third for Lawrence Batley Theatre, distinguishes itself by updating female characters for modern times.
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