There are a lot of lines to learn in Sleeping Beauty – and that’s just for the audience! In addition to those which you have to call out for the entrance of various characters, there’s a whole range of bits of business which are traditional to the Marlowe theatre panto season itself. As they say – it's the law. As a Marlowe novice, there were moments where it felt like you’ve been invited to a friend’s house at Christmas and are suddenly expected to fall in with peculiar family traditions which everyone else finds completely normal.
Fortunately, the cast are warm and welcoming, so you don’t feel like an outsider for long. The production also has a refreshing quality which, as a veteran of many, many pantos, was a delight to discover. The quality in question is the way in which the show works for both adults and children but does so with almost no hint of a double-entendre. Now I’m not averse to these and have enjoyed many of Julian Clary’s innuendo-laced Palladium pantos, but this show is pitched perfectly so you don’t notice how carefully it’s been crafted, meaning such easy laughs are not needed and not missed.
The other ingredient often bypassed in modern pantos is the plot. Here it’s both present and coherent, as well as cracking along at a brisk pace.Ore Oduba is front and centre on the programme cover as the star, playing Prince Michael. In truth, though, the parts of the prince and his beauty, played by Ellie Kingdon, are, as usual, a little nondescript. This leaves the performers to do a lot of the heavy lifting to bring any sort of charisma to proceedings – a tough challenge in the face of the onslaught from ‘Dame’ Ben Roddy as Nurse Nellie and one that is not fully met.
Jennie Dale as the good fairy Moonbeam does, though, more than hold her own in a part which is often little more than a few puffs of smoke and some plot exposition. Here we get an engaging performance and a strong character who gets in the thick of it with the other characters.
Leading the fray is the previously mentioned Ben Roddy as Nurse Nellie. He’s a quite superb dame and delivers more energy and fun to proceedings than almost any other panto dame I’ve seen. Max Fulham as his sidekick Jangles is totally loveable and brilliantly funny. The appearance of a puppet monkey on his arm could be a red flag but, mercifully, he turns out to be a little star. Fulham’s best moments of ventriloquism are without the puppet, though, as he calls on an apparently unsuspecting member of the audience for their participation.For me, though, this is Carrie Hope Fletcher’s show. Her star power is evidenced by the way she draws everything to her whenever she’s on stage. She somehow makes the wicked fairy Carrie-bosse delightfully evil and just plain delightful at the same time. Her performance is broad and she seems to be having a ball in her first panto. At the same time, it is full of subtle details of looks and movement which take the character beyond the two-dimensional and give us a baddie we really want to spend more time with.
Full marks too for the inclusion of a true slapstick scene with genuine mess all over the performers and the stage. I seem to remember pantos of old would often have a kitchen scene where pies could be thrown. But in recent years, no doubt because of the cost and hassle of cleaning up the mess, these have been missing. No such concerns at the Marlowe, where the gleeful enjoyment of the chaos brings the house down.This Sleeping Beauty is original, fresh and funny. I haven’t enjoyed a panto as much in years.
Review by John Charles
Rating: ★★★★★
Seat: U1 | Price of Ticket: £49.50
