THE COOLEST CAT IN LONDON. AND SOME RATS.
Here’s your traditional Christmas outing, proper panto. No rackety popstar hype or tedious suggestive jokes from worn-out comicS, just bright colours, and sets that make a kid want to go home and build their own even if they can’t build a revolve. Add cheerful sixties tunes and a swinging plot with some genuinely eccentric twists; plus, as it is set in London, the odd well-deserved swipe at Sadiq Khan.
Anthony Spargo’s couplets even rhyme and scan properly, and the author himself takes the role of the evil Ratticus rising, as he should , demonically from the floor in a startling 1960’s red-and-black pinstripe with giant shoulderpads. Not that evil has any chance against the gallant Dick (a likeable Samuel Bailey) and his eyecatchingly very cool Cat. Who is Inez Ruiz, prowlingly ginger in furs, who slinks around occasionally playing the saxophone.
Just enough modernity for the bells of London to be played by a projected clock-face talking in a Kenneth Williams voice, just enough weird crypto-educational plot for a Dr Who phonebox to swallow various cast members and go back to the Great Fire of London , so the more thoughtful children can muse on the impossibility of changing past history. Only it does, as back in their present day nice Dame Megg’s bakery has become a dodgy Rat-a-Manger, and there’s a thrillingly naughty casino. Those in the young audience who have already done Tudor History can appreciate the idea of a shop called Catherine Tarragon. Oh, and there is the kitchen scene, the fight scene, and the odd bum and slime joke, as there should be. And there’s Louise Cieleki as a wet minnie-mouse trying to be a convincing powerful rat, a social sensation we have all had in our lives.
There’s nothing like sneaking early to a schools matinee to judge a proper panto. My lot – I think three SE London schools – were singing along deafeningly to “Last Christmas” well before the curtain, and more than willing to yell back every catch-phrase. But just as importantly they were concentrating on the story, properly and quietly when needed and roaring approval when appropriate. Close to me one small lad, previously showing every signs of getting “challenging” on his report card, leaned forward keenly at every twist, especially the time-travel. After the interval he hurried back to wait for part 2. So there you are: you’ll find starrier pantos and louder ones and ruder ones and far more expensive ones, but if we still lived in Greenwich that’s where I’d start Christmas.
greenwichtheatre.org.uk to 5 jan
rating 4
theatreCat 