The Joy of Panto

The cast of Lil’ Red Robin Hood is uniformly excellent. Robert Markus is charming as the male lead Red. Lawrence Libor is allowed to be slightly more fallible and funny than Robin Hood would be if he were truly the central character.

A.J. Bridel sparkles as Marion. I like how she insists that the castle raid is her mission and “I don’t want to see any backseat missioning” from Robin. Perhaps it’s a nod to panto tradition that Marion is the true leader of the couple. While the Ross Petty pantos haven’t generally followed this element of the older British tradition, there was a time when the lead male — the “principal boy” — character (either Red or Robin in this show’s case) would have been played by a woman. We have records of various female Robin Hoods or Allan-a-Dales in historic British productions.

But a lot of the fun in a panto doesn’t come from the heroes, but from the comic and villainous characters.

Daniel Williston’s Tuck is amusing by himself, but paired with Michael de Rose’s Sugarbum — that’s the real romantic pairing of the show.

Sugarbum is the traditional “panto dame” — a man in woman’s costume - who makes outrageous comments that soar over the children’s heads to delight the parents in the audience. Red has a cold in the show, and at one point they actually cover his nose and mouth leaving him unable to breath. Sugarbum quips that they should have had a “safe word”. When a guard discovers our heroes have broken free of jail, he asks “How long have you been out?” An offended Sugarbum retorts “That’s personal!”

Then we get to the villain of the piece — the Sheriffe of Naughtyham — played with gusto by Sara-Jeanne Hosie. When they started in 1996, the production’s founder Ross Petty kept the plum bad guy role for himself, but as delightful as Petty was in the earlier shows, his absence is not keenly felt. Hosie more than earns all the boos she gets.   

Boos? That’s how pantos work. Audiences cheer the heroes, but they even more enthusiastically boo and hiss at the bad guys.

There’s a special magic in live theatre — the supposed invisible “fourth wall” between the players and the audience. We can see them, but they aren’t supposed to see us. Of course, the performers do and draw energy from the audience. But in panto, the fourth wall is broken. The characters on stage are allowed to know they’re being watched. 

When the Sheriffe contemplates whether she should read Red’s book with knowledge of the future, she asks the audience’s advice. Of course all the kids shout “No!” And she evilly dismisses the audience with a “Get over it!” 

Some of the audience participation is even more spontaneous. One of the running gags is that for all her protestations of being a genius, the Sheriffe is unable to pronounce the word “nemesis”. After the Sheriffe tripped over the word for what might have been the tenth time, the child next to me yelled “You’re saying it wrong!” In a grown-up show, it would be scandalous for an audience member to shout like that. But in a panto, it’s all part of the fun. 

And if there’s one actor in the cast who knows about the fun in a panto, it’s Eddie Glen who returns for his 17th production. He plays Marvin — the wizard who hangs out with the Sheriffe but isn’t so bad after all.

The Sheriffe is obsessed with her coronation, but Marvin notes from the history book that it would be “the most poorly attended ceremony until 2017.” And just in case you didn’t pick up on who he was referring to, Glen does an extended Donald Trump impression that’s on par with Saturday Night Live.