Anna Burnside reviews a stand-out production with ‘sharp, relevant writing’.
Popular culture’s only umbrella-powered flying nanny has dropped into the west end to delight oldices who want to come to a panto without their grandchildren. Who knew so many grey-heads wanted to spend Wednesday lunchtime laughing in a basement.
Writer and director Martin McCormick’s take on the Disney classic is a really well-judged piece of work that sticks surprisingly closely to the original. Mary Doll is summoned by a TikTok video from Caris and Harris Clydebank, two distressed west end weans whose evil capitalist father has threatened to cancel Christmas.
The bold nanny’s mission, in between flirting with Stuart in the front row, is to get the kids off their phones, show them the real Glasgow and give dad a lesson in family values (and not the John Major kind).
She does this via a primitive mobile, a trip to the Grand Ole Opry and a tremendous audience participation song with a play on Glasgow’s famous “here we go” chant.
The references to the original are there for anyone who cares to find them – ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ becomes ‘A Moothful of Buckie’ and ‘Feed the Birds’ become ‘Sports Socks, Two for a Pound’.
The jokes and references are smart and contemporary while nodding to panto traditions old and new. The fourth wall is just fragile enough and the pokes at other theatres kept to a minimum. The comic possibilities of Mr Clydebank’s first name, Atholl, are possibly overstretched, but the observation and rhymes - hair with flair for example - are strong.
To help the hard-working cast of five, there’s a running gag about silent characters. To help this along, the weans’ maw spends a lot of time in a tartan version of the Kneecap balaclava.
There’s also a great set piece of visual puns on bored, culminating in, naturally, the spirit-summoning Weegie board.
Neil John Gibson’s Mary Doll follows the ‘if-it-ain’t-broke’ rule of damehood while Carmen Pieraccini is in great form as both Mr and Mrs Clydebank.
But what really makes this production sing is McCormick’s sharp, relevant writing. Just what the superannuated audience ordered.
Mary Doll Poppins is at Oran Mor until January 4, 2026. For further information and tickets, go to the company’s website.
Image by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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