Red Riding Hood
Fortune Theatre
Saturday, November 13
People go to pantomimes to have fun, and fun was what the Fortune Theatre audience was having on Saturday night.
The storyline, recognisable characters, over-the-top costumes and silly songs provide plenty to keep children laughing while, in traditional pantomime fashion, innuendoes of a more adult kind and topical allusions fly over their heads to keep the older folks thoroughly entertained.
It all centres around Grandma, played resplendently by Stuart Devenie, who lives in a dear little cottage in the Ross Creek Reserve, Maori Hill side of course.
Patrick Davies is marvellously athletic as the wolf, but the wolf isn't the biggest menace.
The real trouble comes in the slimy form of Sir Roger Bounder (Peter Hayden, managing to be truly loathsome), who intends to trick Grandma and Mother Hood (Clare Adams, looking and sounding like a true women's magazine devotee) out of their houses, chop down all the trees and build Dunedin's second stadium.
Red Riding Hood (sweetly and resourcefully played by Abby Howells) and boyfriend Lance (Hadley Taylor), who's a Doc worker and Jinty MacTavish fan, with help from Boris and Morris (Anna Henare and Mark Neilson), manage to steer everyone and everything towards a happily over-contrived ending.
Roger Hall has to be acknowledged as New Zealand's supreme writer of pantomimes and, while I didn't think this one had quite the sparkle of 2008's Jack and the Beanstalk, I enjoyed it.
The assistant reviewer, who is 6, had a splendid time.
Director David Lawrence makes sure the inventive silliness never flags, Matt Best and Maryanne Wright-Smythe keep the set and costumes up to the Fortune's usual high standards and Garry Keirle's lighting design adds visual impact.
Music by Michael Nicholas Williams, lyrics by Paul Jenden and musical direction and performance by Julia Horsnell round things out nicely.
- Barbara Frame
