He’s behind you
Widow Twankey honks her horn at the Hackney Empire
What with the snow – or the ice – becoming annoying and the darkness of January grinding its way towards its lowest point on Blue Monday, it’s time for a little warmth and colour. That is, it’s really time for pantomime. So, last week the lovely Autumn booked us tickets to Aladdin at the Hackney Empire.
Since discovering last year that my great-grandfather was a scene painter in Victorian panto, I have a new found interest in the form, but I’ve also never quite grown out of it either. If you are off to see a pantomime this winter it seems that the Hackney panto is the one to see, even the sceptical (and slightly snooty) Telegraph reviewer left walking on air.
It’s easy to see why the reviews have been so good – from the introduction by the panto camel to the final rapturous bows – this is a desert-hot blast of energy and good humour. Alongside our cheery Aladdin (Anna Jane Casey) the other characters are as bright and bold as Dalston Market oranges. There’s definitely a Hackney influence: the Empress of China (Tameka Empson) has taken on a very ‘strident’ African form, complete with village proverbs, and the Genii of the Lamp (Kat B) seems to think it’s 4am in a bashment. Even the catch phrase of the Genii of the Ring (Josephine Melville) is “You get me though?”
Perhaps it’s because most of my panto going was done a while ago, but the Widow Twankey of The Wash-Me-Nicks Laundry seems to be more gregarious than ever. Wearing seven elaborate outfits, Clive Rowe is simply splendid. He’s as wide as a washing machine, with a voice as big as a bus that he left me wanting a him to finish the snatches of songs he sings. Luckily, with comic timing set in Greenwich, there wasn’t time to dwell on it.
If you thought that panto was for youngsters then you’d be wrong: we were sitting behind a row of oldsters. Who wouldn’t appreciate a dance routine featuring mummies from the tomb, or cart-wheeling pandas. All this happens on a backdrop of dazzling sets that flick past at a bewildering speed. The dragon that takes Aladdin from the Peking suburb of Ha-Ka-Ney to Arabia is a particular wonder of ingenuity. The set designers even built a palace just for the final bows. I’m sure Oscar Barrett and John P Barrett would approve.
Despite the jollity of the show, there is a sinister, sorrowful cloud that hangs over the proceedings. This is nothing to do with Abanazer the magician who’s the baddie, and everything to do with the financial problems that threaten to close the theatre. Last summer the Empire almost shut for good and when the panto finishes at the beginning of February, they are having a ‘rethink’ on their artistic direction. Roland Muldoon, a former chief executive and artistic director, believes the changes will move away from the theatre’s ‘black’ programming agenda. This suggests that the management thinks that this agenda is not bringing in the crowds. Whatever is behind these financial problems, this year’s Aladdin is not entirely ‘white’, but it left the audience entirely satisfied, black or white. Book your tickets now.
Tags: Blue Monday, Clive Rowe, Dalston Market, Hackney Empire, panto, pantomime