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A Jewish pantomime sounds like an unsual idea at first glance: as a rule panto is aggressively secular, heathen even, an artform that flourishes during the Christmas holidays but has zip all to do with baby Jesus. A Christian pantomime sounds like a horrible idea, like Christian comedy or Christian rock or Christian snacks.
But of course Jewishness is as much about a people as a religion, and pantomimes are invariably rooted in community, which is very much the raison d’etre of this ramshackle but spirited first seasonal offering from West Hampstead’s Jewish arts centre JW3, ahich is being billed as ‘London’s first ever Jewish pantomime’.
From broiguses to latkes, Nick Cassenbaum’s ‘Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig’ is not short of Jewish cultural references, and its allusions to Hannukah give it a more spiritual vibe than the usual panto godlessness (though I’d hardly call it religious).
But Abigail Anderson’s production is, in essence, a straightforward example of a pantomime, in which flatulent Mother Hoodman (Debbie Chazen) and her nerdy daughter Red (Gemma Barnett) cross paths with Josh Glanc’s Big Bad Pig, a ruthless corporate developer (and also pig) who has threatened the town’s electricity supply by monstrously jacking up prices.
If it’s made on a tight budget compared to many theatres’ seasonal offerings, it’s still a fun couple of hours that’s attracted some genuine talent to its cast - Barnett is excellent, charismatic and with a terrific singing voice, and cult Australian comedian Glanc is enjoyable as the Pig, despite – or possible because – he looks somewhat bewildered at what the hell is going on. Personally, I had mixed feelings about the show’s inclination towards the scatological: in a very literal sense it ends with a ten-minute rendition of a song whose only lyric is ‘smelly bum’ (obviously the primary schoolers in attendance loved this).
But there’s sharper stuff too – the amusing rewriting of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’ to make it about dodgy energy companies is one of the spikier moments of a pretty bland 2023 panto season.
Clearly it’s made by and essentially for the local Jewish community; not being part of this, some stuff either went over my head or wasn’t aimed at me. But it’s hardly alienating. ‘Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig’ is spirited and full of lo-fi charm. Certainly if you live in the neighbourhood and are looking for something to do on Christmas Day itself then it’s highly recommended, being quite possibly the only live entertainment due to take place in London – maybe even the country! – on December 25.