MOTHER GOOSE by Paul Knight. Oxford Playhouse to 13 January
Oxford
MOTHER GOOSE
by Paul Knight
Oxford Playhouse To 13 January 2002
Runs 2hr 20min One interval
TICKETS 01865 305305
Review Timothy Ramsden 30 December
A curate's egg of a Mother Goose, where villainy could easily hold sway.Here's another colourful panto (strangely, the programme credits no-one with the designs) which shows, come Christmas, there's nothing like a dame. There's certainly very little like Russell Dixon's Mother Goose, impoverished after a session at Debenham's Sales (guess which retailer's sponsoring the show).
Dixon has considerable potential both for comedy and fury, but in spite of all his effort and undoubted expertise the script's jokes often fall flat. It's a shame because there's a good routine between the cunning Squire and his unsophisticated agent Hayseed (a Humpty Dumpty lookalike if ever there was) while there are times in the second half when the story – particularly the villainous intrigue – begins to acquire some momentum.
For profligate as this dame is – she's spent all her money on sweets she doesn't want and promptly distributes to an eager audience – her besetting sin is vanity. And, far above villainous earthly power, represented by a local Squire straight out of melodrama, there's a Cloudland tussle between Lizzie Deane's uncompromising silvery, virtuous Fairy and Lloyd Notice's hiss and boo-arousing Vanity. Amid these unmannerly goings on in the heavens, Mother Goose becomes a kind of Job, tested to see if she can avoid the corruption which Vanity insists run through all humanity.
And her vanity almost does for her and her family. As she goes off to be spruced up and face-lifted by supposedly magical means, she might not kill, but certainly turns over, Priscilla, the goose that lays the golden eggs, into the hands of the wrong-un Squire.
Evil generally gets the best of the story, which goes right only thanks to the kind of deus ex machina that is presumably ex deus because the gods have thrown it out. The musical inserts are (fairly threadbare) cover versions and go along with some satisfying dance routines. This Mother Goose has enjoyable parts but needs more pep in areas of scripted humour and musical inventiveness.
Priscilla: Cheryl Blaize
Fairy Harmony: Lizzie Deane
Mother Goose: Russell Dixon
Hayseed: Crispin Harris
Tommy Tucker: Andrew Norris
Vanity: Lloyd Notice
Squire: Chris Scott
Lucy Lockett: Alison Senior
Chorus: Alison Clifford, Kevin Brewis, Nick Dutton, Helen Siveter
Children: Emily Baskerville, David Bulgarelli, Costa Cambanakis, Lisa Clarke, Miriam Hall, Isabel Muncaster, Carmen Prowse, Marielise Smith, Lizzie Yaxley/Charlotte Bradshaw, Richard Firn, bethjany Gorton, Aimee Gould, Joseph Harrision, Isobel Hathaway, Claudia Marciano, Chea Ruiz, Kit Spink.
Director/Choreographer: Michele Hardy
Lighting: Ashley Beale
Sound: Nigel Dallas
2001-12-30 23:19:26