Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Deserves to be a permanent winter fixture: Potted Panto at the Garrick reviewed

Plus: Christmas is Ruined! is a decent parable told with playful charm

Jefferson Turner and Daniel Clarkson in Garrick Theatre's fantastic Potted Panto. Photo: Geraint Lewis

Potted Panto is a 70-minute parody presented by two burlesque comedians. Jeff is a tall, playful bungler and his colleague, Dan, is a squat, dour authoritarian who likes to see everything done efficiently. They leap on stage and declare their plan to present a compendium of the best-known Christmas shows. ‘All six of them,’ says Dan. ‘No, all twelve,’ contradicts Jeff, unfurling a list that includes classics from the TV schedules like A Christmas Carol and Das Boot. He insists that these non-pantos are included in their panto rundown. And so a war of opposites begins. Jeff is all appetite and instinct while Dan stands for reason and method. Or, in shorthand, Jeff is an infant and Dan is an adult. The kids in the audience grasped these polarities immediately and sided with the amiable, incompetent Jeff over the cheerless and proficient Dan. Howls of joy erupted as the two adults came to blows, or slammed cream pies in each other’s faces or flung buckets of manure across the stage.

Bad taste was the order of the day. In the spoof of A Christmas Carol, Tiny Tim was played by a cute, limping puppet that climbed on to Scrooge’s shoulder and vomited down the back of his nightgown. If only Dickens had included that in the original. In Aladdin, an elderly merchant confessed to the crowd that he felt suicidal. ‘Can you think of a really nasty way for me to die?’ ‘Find a shotgun,’ said a helpful boy aged six, ‘and shoot yourself.’ In Dick Whittington, the ambitious mayor of London was portrayed as a stammering toff in a blond wig. ‘Do you think a Dick could become prime minister?’ he asked. Yes, came the reply, as long as he promised to give his chums £12 billion of public money to set up a test-and-trace system that didn’t work.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in