Hurrah for the good old pantomime we all loved and looked forward to at Christmas as children.
Sadly, over the years, the ethos of a bit of fun and slapstick has got lost as theatres concentrated on polished and well drilled shows.
So, it was a breath of fresh air to join an audience full of children having a great time enjoying all the thrills of traditional pantomime at the Cumbernauld Theatre at Lanternhouse.
The theatre is currently at risk because it doesn’t have funding from Creative Scotland, so it’s all the more important that the run of Baltic until Christmas Eve attracts a packed house.
The show is a Scottish version of the traditional Snow Queen, written by Jerry Taylor and directed by Ginger and Jester Productions.
And it’s a laugh a minute with some predictably corny jokes that old-fashioned pantos are all about. There’s a strong cast too, with a big shout out to Jerry who also plays the role of Sammy Slush.
Full of energy, he worked hard from the beginning to win the young audience over and was rewarded with lots of cheeky shouting out, booing and hissing at the baddies and plenty of clapping along to the classic pop songs.
It’s a bright and colourful show too and lovely to see wee ones on stage and performing their roles as trolls and dancers with aplomb.
The cast of Baltic is made up of youth and experience with Still Game star Alex Robertson hilarious as Dame Agnus Avalunch and choreographer and musical director Abbie Watson is perfect as the evil Queen Chillblain.
Newcomer Lauren O’Hare is a confident Elspeth and has a strong singing voice and fellow youngster, Milly Sweeney is accomplished as Jack Frost.
The story centres around Elspeth and Dame Agnus as they search with Sammy Slush for Elspeth’s twin Kai, kidnapped by Queen Chillblain and taken back to her castle.
The traditional story of Snow Queen is jazzed up with characters with nods to popular Disney films and Kathleen McClenaghan clearly has fun as Nolaff, the wee fat snowman looking for its nose.
Erin Scanlan, Nathan Ferguson, Reese Hannah, Fraser Stokes and Isla Gordon make up the rest of the cast and it’s great to see everyone on stage having a ball.
Abbey Gordon is the dance captain, Iona Gray, responsible for the fabulous set and Drew McCulloch, the composer.
Baltic runs at the Cumbernauld Theatre at Lanternhouse until Christmas Eve, with an audio described performance on Sunday 14th December at 2:00pm. Tickets are available from: www.lanternhousearts.org.
Author Bio:
Rebecca Hay is an experienced travel writer and member of The British Guild of Travel Writers. Follow her adventures with her family on Twitter and Instagram @emojiadventurer and on Facebook via EmojiAdventurers2.
Photographs courtesy of Sartorial Pictures
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