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Michael Cox reviews 'an absolute treat'.
Miracle on 34th Street is an American cinematic classic, with its themes of belief, honesty and a questioning look at commercialism. The films (either the 1940s original or the 1990s update) are rather earnest affairs, delightful but lacking large laughs.
So the idea of a Scottish panto taking its inspiration from the film seems a bit…odd, to say the least. Which makes Johnny McKnight’s Miracle on 34 Parnie Street even more impressive: the whole thing works an absolute treat.
The story’s roughly the same: a person claiming to be the real Santa Claus comes to play the annual role in a shop and, through charm and truthful advice to parents on where to buy Christmas gifts, manages to help the company’s profile but ends up on trial with their sanity being questioned.
While the films are mostly about faith and the good-ole ‘Christmas spirit’, Parnie Street is mostly about making its audiences laugh, a feat its six-strong cast easily achieve. McKnight is rather terrific as Kringle, bringing a feminist angle with outrageous antics, and Darren Brownlie is hilarious as Mr Bellhammer, a character straight out of a melodrama. Julie Wilson Nimmo and Gavin Jon Wright are equally amusing playing multiple roles, and Greig Adam has a few winning moments as an understudy looking for the limelight. If there is a triumph, however, it comes in the guise of Michelle Chantelle Hopewell, who plays multiple roles with a wonderful sarcastic glee and a terrific voice—perhaps a star in the making but most certainly a talent to keep an eye on.
Does it all add up and work? Perhaps not, but with a wicked sense of humour and a fierce delivery of jokes akin to the rat-t-tat firing splurge of a Tommy Gun, Miracle on 34 Parnie Street is a winner that’s easy to believe in.
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