Revamp of fairytale is chock full of beans, says Caroline David
It’s pantomime season and there’s more than you might expect in Jez Bond and Mark Cameron’s re-imagined Jack and the Beanstalk.
This clever take on the traditional story marries slapstick with all manner of meta-theatrical and literary japes. It’s cleverly done: a freewheeling confection, overloaded but unfailingly exuberant.
Running with a joke that the Park has simultaneously programmed Hamlet as part of its festive season, the actors start with a scene from the doomed prince only to be interrupted by a disgruntled ‘audience member’. The cast re-assesses and then catapults the audience into the land of Gazoob where the evil inventor Ms Grimm wants world domination.
Meanwhile, in the neighbourhood Kingdom of Nowen, Tina [Tupperware consultant to the stars] and her son Jack struggle to pay the rent. Grimm’s lovely daughter Grethel and her boyfriend Geoff – the smallest giant in the world – try their best to block Grimm’s plans. When Grimm turns Geoff into a bean, only a band of singing mariachi shepherds can help Jack save the day.
As well as Shakespeare, there are far-reaching references: TV soaps, Groucho Marx, classic poetry, to name a few; they come thick and fast. The versatile cast bound between sharp physical comedy routines, do glorious un-PC impersonations of foreigners and belt out the superb numbers.
Michael Cahill is an inspiring Dame, all quivering vulnerability and innuendo in a fruit-presser costume (designed by Josephine Sundt). But the text’s excessive knowingness over-complicates the story and the riffs are often too obtuse.
My young companion found it a little confusing. He did want to see it again though – especially for the chance of taking part in Tina’s on-stage Tupperware competition.
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