Adult Pantomime should become a year-round treat for the adults as the evening’s audience had a blast watching this year’s Pantomime Jack and the Giant Stalk by Josh Dixon for Pumpkin Panto’s.

Fairy Flickbean (Sabrina Hinchliffe) opened the evening’s entertainment with an abundance of glitz and a bang. This is one Fairy that doesn’t hold back or curb her words. We definitely need more of these no-nonsense attitudes in Pantomimes.

The Pantomime is full of adult “only” humour with plenty of sexual double entendre references and double meanings. Although these weren’t simply added or repeated for a cheap gag, and when the cast knew the audience would guess the next rhyming word they actively encouraged the audience to join in.

Ben Kennedy takes the fabulous role of Jack’s long-suffering Mother Fanny Churner who in the style of panto chooses a male from the audience as her “love interest”. Andrew was chosen and he was an excellent “sport” all evening and even took being taken on stage in his stride.

No spoiler alerts with what happens in the storyline of Jack and the Beanstalk although the adult twist is our protagonist Jack (David Louch) has a “giant stalk” apparently we never actually confirm this, funnily enough everything is purely suggestive.

Pat the Cow played by Jade Williams complete with hooves has a challenging performance at times especially when she is asked to ride a bike from the market. The audience responded with a round of applause when she managed it encumbered by the “hand hooves”.

Writer and Director Josh Dixon encourages the audience from the beginning to “boo and jeer” him as loud as possible in his role as the baddie Grunt. And you wouldn’t be the only person to notice a strong resemblance to the 1980s pop icon Boy George.

Although this production has finished for this season please check out the website about future productions. For more information about Pumpkin Panto’s please use the link below. They are definitely worth catching next time they are on stage.

Four Stars

https://www.pumpkinpantos.co.uk/

CAST

(Order of appearance)

Fairy Flickbean-Sabrina Hinchliffe

Grunt-Josh Dixon

Jack-David Louch

Fanny Churner-Ben Kennedy

Pat the Cow-Jade Williams

Ghost-Eliza Holloway