READING Repertory Theatre is pulling out all the stops this Christmas with a double bill of panto and Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life.
The theatre is bringing the productions to life through its newly established repertory troupe, who are split into pairs for Potted Panto, and the pairs rotated for performances of the two-handed show.
Potted Panto, written by Daniel Clarkson, Jefferson Turner, and Richard Hurst, sees the pair taking on six classic panto shows between the two of them.
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, and Dick Whittington, plus a smattering of A Christmas Carol.
The flurry of shows squeezed into 70 minutes gives the production a fun pace and sense of abandon, as it never dwells on a particular story for too long.
This allows the production to fine-tune the levels of silliness, slapstick, and self-awareness, which is perfect for a Christmas panto.
As is to be expected, there is a healthy mixture of humour for even the youngest audience members, sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek gags for the adults.
These included some smartly-chosen riffs on EastEnders, Bonnie Tyler, and Beyonce, as well as political jibes and topical bits (“I don’t know what you’ve heard about princes lately…”)
Overall, the comedy in the show takes so many different tones and forms, there is certain to be more than a few laugh-out-loud moments for any audience member.
As with most pantos, the success of the production relies on the chemistry between its principal cast, which is one of the production’s particular strengths.
In the preview show, Charlotte Warner and Eugene Evans performed as themselves and the characters of the stories.
Evans excels at bringing an engagingly goofy angle to his performance, including occasionally ludicrous facial expressions and physicality, then contrasted with high-and-mighty haughtiness.
He is well-complimented by Warner’s exasperated performance as the foil to his foolishness, though it falls into folly with enough regularity to keep it fresh.
The pair bring a vibrant, engaging chemistry to the show to make it feel cheesy enough to reach the nostalgia of pantos of old, but smart enough to make it feel modern, too.
In fact, the self-awareness of the whole piece provides many of the funniest moments, such as a mention of the in-house sound tech and stage manager, the long-suffering Heather
Evans’ Prince Charming and Warner’s Abanazar/Ebenezer were among the particular highlights, alongside slight shade thrown at some of Reading’s venues and a brilliant gag about 3D glasses (“Three whole new dimensions!”)
Overall, Potted Panto is designed from the ground up to allow a theatre company to show off the very best it has to offer by cherry-picking moments from classic stories.
Reading Repertory Theatre has made the most of this by turning up the self-awareness and the silliness in equal measure, marrying blink-and-you’ll-miss-it costume changes and nod-and-a-wink gags at blistering pace.
The show is everything you’d expect from a classic Christmas panto, but more so– in every regard.
Potted Panto is showing at Reading Repertory Theatre, Kings Road, until New Year’s Eve, including matinees and evening performances.
There are signed shows as well as relaxed and reduced-capacity performances.
Full details available, as well as booking, via: readingrep.com/potted-panto
