What makes a "traditional" pantomime? It's certainly not just a case of blowing the dust off a 1970s panto script and hoping for the best; here, the Brunton’s now regular panto provider, John Binnie, writes and directs a new version of Jack and the Beanstalk that offers all the local references you'd expect, along with bold colours, numerous "Behind You!" moments, and comedy ranging from a cream pie in the face to light sexual innuendo.
Yet it's equally of its time: most notably, with the significant role given to Jack's sister Jilly, played with considerable flair by Brunton Panto regular Eilidh Weir.
Yet it's equally of its time: most notably, with the significant role given to Jack's sister Jilly, played with considerable flair by Brunton Panto regular Eilidh Weir. Jilly is brave, bold and (much to her mother's disappointment) "scientific"; much more intelligent than Jack, she's full of questions and a determination to learn. So, definitely not the helpless damsel in distress. And yet the traditions of pantomime are strong: to her own surprise and horror, Jilly falls completely in love with Ewan Petrie's gloriously self-centred Prince Designer Labels, as he does for her... despite her being so NOT his "type".
Thankfully, their gratuitous romantic duet is performed under duress, in a Big Cooking Pot while they're slowly boiled alive. Nevertheless, everything that's going on means that our titular Jack is ever-so-slightly on the back foot: Ross Donnachie is effective enough as the focus of our sympathies, albeit (at least this early in the run) sometimes a tad self-conscious during the dance routines. Sadly, he's almost constantly upstaged: by Jilly, by Graham Crammond’s solidly played Mither Mandy Moo Moo, numerous other broadly-outlined characters from Wendy Seager, and a pantomime cow with a penchant for lying in bed.
A wonderfully loud production, it successfully distracts us from its inherent financial restraints. (The Beanstalk is done as well as last year’s somewhat bigger production at the Edinburgh King's Theatre.) Indeed, there’s only one serious scripted stumble: while it's definitely "traditional" to compare Jilly to a current politician, namely Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, it's surely not to have Jilly shout out for Scottish Independence. Good to have politics in a panto? Oh no it isn't!
