Proof that the Lyric Hammersmith is basically London’s flagship panto these days comes from the opposite end of London, as Stratford East chalks up its best seasonal show in years, essentially by importing the previous Lyric creative team. Redoubtable composer Robert Hyman is still present and correct, offering a fizzy electropop backdrop to the original songs (the Stratford East panto doesn’t ‘do covers’, although a few snatches of Chappell Roan and Cyndi Lauper in fact make their way in).
But co-writer/directors Vikki Stone and Tonderai Munyevu have turned in a funny, sassy, great-looking production that has a ball with the already very much in-evidence anti-capitalist vibes of traditional panto Mother Goose.
In Mama Goose, the very enjoyable Duane Gooden plays the eponymous dame, an amiable goose-loving old dear who lives a happy life with her gaggle of three geese plus human son Jack (Marcellus Whyte). Unfortunately a swingeing tax is introduced on honking, that sets Mama back £10 every time one of her geese makes a sound. Unable to pay up, her geese are confiscated and she’s left up to her eyeballs in debt.
Cue the arrival of well-intentioned ‘goose fairy’ WTF (The Wholesome Thoughtful Fairy, Ellie Seaton), who seeks to help Mama G out by gifting her Gary the Golden Goose, a bird that lays golden eggs… but only on the condition she doesn’t tell anyone. This turns out to be a terrible plan: it’s basically impossible to conceal a human-sized goose from your own son who you live with; making things worse, Gary – entertainingly played by the playwright Ché Walker – is a big old East End geezer loudmouth; and of course, the second Mama gets a single golden egg she loses all sense of perspective and becomes a chronically entitled diva with delusions of grandeur.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the wicked BFF (The Bougie Fierce Fairy, Mya Fox-Scott) covets Gary for herself and has sent a clearly artificial woman named AI Jill to retrieve him – unfortunately, Jack promptly falls hard for her.
It’s the usual good natured anarchy, but it’s done very well and really lifted by Stewart J Charlesworth’s dazzlingly loud costumes, some of the more appealingly mad ideas (Charlie Cameron is an absolute delight as the bizarre AI Jill) and the odd moment of pure lefty insurrection. It has a withering attitude towards infliuencer culture and long story short there’s a scene in which our intrepid heroes are being menaced by Elon Musk and an entire theatre of primary schoolers is screeching ‘creepy Elon Musk is behind you!’. I’m sure it’s what he’d want.
The Stratford East panto has suffered in recent years from over-conceptualised shows written by well-meaning playwrights who don’t really know their way around the form. However Stone, in particular, is a woman who if you cut her will bleed panto. It’s great to have her back on the scene at Christmas. I do get why changing the writing team annually is a fun idea in theory. But with a new artistic director (Lisa Spirling) in charge at Stratford East, might it not be a good time to ring in the changes by not actually changing the creative team next year? This one’s a winner.
