6 hours ago
8
Who needs a flying carpet when you’ve got the bus to Maybole? The high point of Fraser Boyle’s joyful panto comes when Abanazar (Gavin Jon Wright) leaks the location of his not-so-secret lair and the rest of the cast go in pursuit. On public transport. On film. Outside broadcasting was never so funny.
Not that the baddie stands much chance: having stolen the magic lamp and summoned up its four genies (in a show big on community engagement, actors outnumber the special effects), he recklessly squanders his three wishes. Happily, Wright relishes our boos as much as we do.
Set in Ancient Old New Cumnock, Tom Cooper’s production is a pleasing combination of tradition and originality. On one hand, it is a rosy-cheeks-and-spotty-socks kind of show, complete with painted backdrops and a familiar score that incorporates everything from a 1970s disco medley to Tom Lehrer’s Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (Boyle’s script has a pigeon fixation).
On the other hand, along with the JK Rowling quips and six-seven jokes, it diverges from the standard fairytale to offer a parable about wealth. Princess Destiny (Mia Musakambeva) refuses to be a nepo baby. Despite being the daughter of the Empress Oonagh of Ayrshire (a majestic Hannah Howie), she has opted for business college and a work placement at Widow Twankey’s laundry.
She has a better sense of the worth of Aladdie (Lewis Kerr) than he does himself. Riches are usually the solution to the boy’s woes; here they are the problem. His transition to a gaudy arriviste only puts her off.
Yet this is not Kerr’s show, despite his fine musical-theatre voice. It is not even that of Boyle, an equal-opportunities dame who shares the laughs generously across the cast. No, this show belongs to Ciara Flynn as Alassie, the hero’s kid sister and our entry point into the mysterious world of grownup love and avarice. With a Clara Bow expressiveness, she is all big eyes and black lashes, our subversive friend making a mockery of empress and lowlife alike, punchily landing each gag before blending into the chorus of a merry ensemble show.
