Dick Whittington in Review

Elena Rezuchova reviews this year’s pantomime for the Arab Times:

“I recently came to the conclusion that the Mayan calendar based on cyclical nature of time must be correct because great things regularly happen at the Kuwait Little Theatre at auspicious times towards the end of the year.  Luckily, the periodic happenings at the KLT are much easier to predict, there are no hieroglyphs, no yucatec names, no Venus cycles – it’s December  which means it’s panto time!  This year’s panto Dick Whittington And His Cat directed by Kimberly Lewis, a KLT newcomer, was a resounding success.  Kimberly had no sooner unpacked her boxes after moving to Kuwait from Jordan than she appeared in Mad Musicals 7 as a soloist and chorus principal.  The fact that the panto was played to full audiences of small and not-so-small children every night is a testimony to her talent as a director.

Dick Whittington and His Cat was the first panto I saw many years ago and since back then I had no idea what a panto was and what on earth was going on I was not impressed at all.  I was thinking to myself ‘How silly!’  Since then I have upgraded my knowledge of theatrical genres, and now the panto ranks high on my list of KLT favorites.    The Christmas pantomime is a uniquely British form of popular entertainment traditionally played during the holiday season even though there is usually no direct reference to Christmas.  The content of the pantos comes from children’s stories or  fairy tales by authors such as Hans Christian Andersen or the Grimm Brothers.  The most popular fairy tales are Cinderella (first performed as a pantomime in 1870 in London), Beauty and the Beast, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood,  Snow White, etc.  Tales from the Arabian Nights, e.g.  Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves sometimes combined with Aladdin, have also made their way to the panto repertoire .

Dick Whittington and His Cat is the only panto based on a real life character, Richard Whittington of Gloucester, a wealthy merchant who served as Lord Mayor of London three times at the end of the 14^th and the beginning of the 15^th centuries.   The story has enchanted generations of theatre goes since 1814 when it was first staged as a pantomime.  Tommy the cat has become so popular  that  statues have been built to commemorate his heroic deeds as a ratter and Dick’s companion.   Whether the historical Whittington actually had a cat or not is not documented but who cares!  We love Tommy for his unwavering loyalty, good heart, quick wit and exceptional decision making skills.  Without him, Dick would be lost,  there would be no legend and no panto.  No wonder that at the end, Fitzwarren decides to put Tommy on the board of directors of his company.

KLT’s Dick Whittington and His Cat had all the characteristics that distinguish a panto from an ordinary children’s story, like gender role reversal, well known tunes with rewritten lines and references to local geography or daily life,  exciting dance routines, squirting members of audience with water and the most popular of all, audience participation.  One of the principal roles,  the panto Dame, is traditionally played by a male actor.  Sarah the Cook played by Tim Waddell stole the show with her outrageous costumes and hats and lead roles in several slapstick sequences.  Tim always excels at establishing an instantaneous relationship with the audience upon entering the stage, this time in a “flat taxi”.  As the Dame, he encourages lively participation in the traditional “he’s behind you” scenes,  the “Oh, yes, it is!” and “Oh, no, it isn’t” shouting matches and the final sheet song where everybody had not only to sing but also jump to their feet and do some aerobics.

We  anxiously watched the love story of the brave Dick (Stephen Grimes) and beautiful Alice Fitzwarren (Emma Neilly) develop against the will of Alice’s father Alderman Fitzwarren (Josef Stagg).   When Idle Jack’s (Sharon Williams) “shabby trick of planting the stolen money on Dick” was discovered, audience cheered in excitement.  Since Dick was now a rich man with a prospect of becoming the Lord Mayor of London, Fitzy, as Sarah lovingly referred to him, was only happy to welcome him as a new member of the family and a business partner.  The whole plot was manipulated by other two panto characters who represent the eternal battle of good and bad – the charming Fairy Bowbells (Pauline Berry) whose job it was to put King Rat (Mike Blackburn), nothing but a common rodent as she calls him with contempt, in his place,  and help Tommy (Lisa Bowdery) not only to get to London faster, but also kill the villain King Rat.    The Fairy always got involved in the plot at the most critical turning points of the panto or “else our ending could be tragic”.  Thanks to her and Tommy – and the panto conventions – good triumphed over evil and at the end Alice became Mrs. Whittington.  Don’t we all need a good fairy and a cat to help us through hard times?

The enthusiastic acting of the principals and chorus combined with great musical numbers (thanks, Miss P on the piano!) dance choreography, jokes and overall lighthearted kindness of the story and the happy ending certainly brought a lot of joy to all and prepared the backdrop for a happy holiday season.  Is next December the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar?  Since the panto is usually scheduled at the beginning of the month, there’s nothing to worry about.  We’ll make it just in time.  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.”