Joy Watters reviews 'a knockabout feel-good kind of panto' which marks the return of the Byre Theatre.
The Byre at St Andrews is back on Scotland’s professional theatre map with a noisy and colourful celebration of a show. Making its return to the Byre after two years is Glasgow’s Bard in the Botanics team with Jack and the Beanstalk, written and directed by Gordon Barr.
The Fife theatre emerges from the gloom of 18 months’ closure, and even as one approaches the brilliantly illuminated theatre the omens are good.
Jack is a knockabout feel-good kind of panto with the traditional story tweaked a little to incorporate lots of local jokes, songs from chart numbers to musical standards, dance but, best of all, lots of fun.
Liveliness and laughter are the mainstay of this production, which really does have something for everyone. Part of the fun of panto is sharing the experience with the rest of the audience, and the other night the sight of a babe in arms waving at the Dame was right up there!
There is nothing like a Dame, and Alan Steele’s Nellie Numpty is a triumph. Splendidly vulgar, hilarious whether scripted or ad libbing, Steele was a dame on her game.
Nellie and her sons Jack and Jock are threatened with eviction from their byre home by evil Count Olaf von Moneybags. A darkly handsome Tom Duncan is eminently boo-able and boasts a lovely Russian channelling Meerkat’s accent. Lucie Thaxter (correct) as Fairy Baubles McTwinkle is delightfully dotty as she aims to return Jack and family to the byre for Christmas.
The professional cast of six put it all out there, spilling out into the compact auditorium on occasion. They are joined by local young people who play panto characters and fairy attendants, thus incorporating the community.
It does seem to come to pieces in the second half as the story seems to be all done and it is like a series of reprises. But hey, it was fun!
Jack and the Beanstalk runs at the Byre until January 3
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