ALADDIN - PANTOMIME Tea Tree Players Tea Tree Players Theatre Until 07 Dec 2019 Review by Brian Godfrey Tea Tree Players Tea Tree Players Theatre Until 7 Dec 2019 Review by Brian Godfrey At the end of every year, in Adelaide, we have two events that remind us that Christmas is not far around the tinseled tree: the (insert name of current sponsor) Xmas Pageant and the Tea Tree Players’ annual end-of-year pantomime. Both can be relied upon to bring joy, but this year the Players’ have pulled out a cracker of super merriment with “Aladdin”; not to be confused with a recent film and stage musical version, but absolutely wonderful in its own right. Joshua Dixon’s script is excellent and throws every traditional English Panto trick in the book at us (except one, which will be looked at further on in this review). There’s many a new take on some old goodies as well, such as the clever reworking of the famous Abbott and Costello “Who’s On First” routine but involving washing instead of baseballers – and plenty of audience participation: “He’s behind you”; “Oh no, they didn’t”; “Washee”. Director Damon Hill has pulled out all the stops and shows that he really understands the joy and magic of pantomime and what makes it work – as does his marvellous cast; there’s not a dull lamp among them. Hill has also designed the delightful sets and fantastic costumes (including some great head gear). Comic timing abounds in the cast: Lachlan Blackwell and Alicia Foster are two of the silliest, funniest police officers one could ever meet as Police Constables Ping and Pong respectively; David Kinna is a Groovy Genie (dig that body paint); and Rhi Shapcott delights as the Spirit of the Ring. As the villainous Abanazar, Mike Pole elicits ‘boos’ and ‘hisses’ from the audience immediately, and doesn’t he enjoy it! – possibly as much as we enjoy his performance. On par with (maybe a touch above) him in the required ‘overacting’ department is Hayley Mitchell, giving some girl power as the Empress. She wonderfully eats up the scenery almost as fast as her head gear swallows her. The love interest, Princess Jasmine, is played by Annika Barry beautifully, with a nice touch of feistiness. In Panto, the audience favourites are usually the ‘dame’ and the ‘Buttons’ style lovable clown (in this case named “Wishee Washee”); in these respective roles, Tim Cousins and Samuel Creighton excel. Cousins is larger than life and as funny as; while one just wants to cuddle Creighton and take him home, especially the youngies. The comic timing from these two is impeccable. The one change to traditional Panto in this case is that Aladdin is not the traditional ‘Panto Boy’ i.e. played by a female but is a male. And the change works well, especially with Steven Brown in the role. Brown is every bit young leading man material; he’s lovably cheeky, heroic (and sometimes satirically Macho), funny, romantic and just a joy to watch. His interaction with Princess Jasmine in particular is nicely played. Let’s not forget the hordes of teenagers and littlies (with a couple of adults thrown in for good measure) – they are the icing on this delicious Christmas pudding of a Panto. Pantos are great fun, but I think this has to be the FUNNEST!! one I have seen in a very long time. This is ‘feel good’ entertainment at its best. Warning: the entire season is deservedly SOLD OUT, but there is a waiting list that you could try to be put on.