3 STARS
‘He’s behind you!’, ‘Oh no he isn’t!’, ‘Oh yes he is!’. Panto season is upon us and Her Campus went along to watch Nottingham Playhouse’s 2014 pantomime, Sleeping Beauty. Everyone knows this classic fairy tale: a princess, cursed by the evil fairy Maleficent, pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and falls into a hundred year sleep, from which only true love’s first kiss can awaken her. The original Brothers Grimm story, as always, takes a more sinister tone and is not quite the happy-ever-after that Walt Disney would have us believe! Luckily for audiences, though, Kenneth Alan Taylor’s adaptation draws more on Disney films past and present to provide an evening of songs, laughs, and the festive spirit so epitomised in panto!
Glitter, sequins, and bright colours galore, pantomime doesn’t take itself seriously and thrives off of its low-culture reputation to create jokes for the adult audience members to appreciate. Nurse Tilly Trot, played by the charismatic John Elkington, was the source of most of the show’s comedy, interspersing the child-friendly plot with innuendo and improvised interactions with audience members. His stage presence was the binding agent of the performance, and helped make up for the apparent lack of star cast members that one might expect from a production selling tickets at up to £29.50 a go.
Music was also an integral part of the production, which featured a soundtrack comprising of original songs, contemporary hits such as Pharell Williams’ ‘Happy’ and Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass’ to get the audience singing along, and a couple of favourites from Frozen. Princess Rosalind and Prince Alexander’s chance encounter in the forest saw the original Disney tune, ‘Once Upon a Dream’ updated and replaced with Frozen’s ‘Love is an Open Door’. It worked really well in relation to the overall light-heartedness of the performance and served as a playfully parodic representation of the love-at-first-sight trope.
While this integration of Frozen was logical in its similarities between Rosalind meeting Alexander, and Anna meeting Hans, the finale song (a rendition of Let it Go), honestly didn’t make much sense. A song about overcoming the oppressive forces that stop us from being true to ourselves didn’t and still doesn’t obviously correspond with the resolution or message of Sleeping Beauty. Although performed well by Fairy Wisheart (Francesca Ellis), the song felt rather forced and incredibly disjointed from the plot: why was Fairy Wisheart, the ‘good’ fairy, suddenly singing about being queen of a ‘kingdom of isolation’ (which she most definitely is not) directly after the joyful wedding of Rosalind and Alexander? For me, it felt as though there wasn’t a good enough original finale song and so the theatre company decided a token Frozen song would suffice and appease the children. That being said, if I didn’t know it before, I am now convinced that Frozen NEEDS to be adapted on stage!
Overall, Sleeping Beauty made for a pleasant evening, but I’m unsure whether that’s down to this particular performance being good or simply from indulging in the nostalgic appeal of watching a pantomime at Christmas. The ticket prices aren’t super ‘student-friendly’ at this time of year as our loans begin to trickle rapidly from our bank accounts, but Sleeping Beauty is perfect for a traditional, festive and light-hearted break from end of term deadlines. If you can abide the murmurings of excited children and the occasional hysterical laughter of an over-zealous and possibly tipsy adult, then make a trip to the Nottingham Playhouse perhaps as a Christmas social with friends, and soak up the spirit of panto!
Image source:
http://www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/about-us/pantomime-in-nottingham/