ACT Reviews 2022-2023 Season

JACK AND HIS BIG STALK (The Adult Pantomime) by Steven Oliver-Grant Directed by Daniel Oliver-Grant Hyde Festival Theatre

Well, this was a first for me. I have got to the age of 56 and never seen an adult pantomime, and after this experience, I am sure, it will not be the last time. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It would be true to say that these are not for the faint-hearted, or for those who are easily offended by the use of choice language or sexual references. As a person who grew up through the 1970s when humour such as the ‘Carry On’ films, and Benny Hill, was deemed acceptable. Sadly it is not the case today, I

loved it! I would say that the majority of the audience had shared similar experiences during our lives. There is a niche in the market for this kind of humour. The whole run of this pantomime has sold out. Various groups, and work places holding their Christmas nights out as well as the general public joined me in having a good humoured night out. I think the success of this evening was that the pantomime provided a familiar framework for the audience to get involved in. We knew the story of Jack, that there would be good and bad characters to cheer and boo, that there would be energetic dances, a slap stick scene and the use of foul language and references with sexual meaning. It also meant that without minors being present the adults could fully engage without feeling judged, everyone was out for a laugh. Here, I would just caution that there is a fine line when writing an adult script that it does need to have adult humour without becoming vulgar. There is also the temptation for the actors to over indulge in the use of profanity by adding lib and this can lead to a loss of impact when such vocabulary is over used and becomes like white noise. The director needs