Although I’m sure any story works as a pantomime if you frame it right, I think it’s fair to say that Carlo Collodi’s hallucinatory 1883 morality narrative The Adventures of Pinocchio requires a lot more framing than most.
Certainly, it feels like it’s somewhat got away from Stratford East this year. Writer Trish Cooke was responsible for the Olivier-nominated 2007 Cinderella that still stands as the Stratford panto’s finest hour. In theory she’s back on board to steady the ship after a few years in which the keys to the show have been turned over to a series of panto first-timer playwrights, often with pretty random results (composer Robert Hyman has remained a constant). But attempting to craft a full adaptation of the Pinocchio story on the timeframe of a conventional panto is essentially beyond her and director Omar F Okai, even if it needs to be acknowledged that they’ve given it a damn good shot.
You know the story: despite considerable deviation, this is essentially the stuff Disney used, rather than the uncut lunacy of the source text. Gepetto (Tok Morakinyo) is a widowed toymaker who crafts a wooden boy named Pinocchio (Dylan Collymore) who comes to life – albeit he’s still made of wood – and is faced with a mountingly weird series of moral conundrums to determine whether he’s worthy of becoming a ‘real’ boy. You know: stuff like getting turned into a donkey or being swallowed by an enormous shark, while facing down temptation from a Sly Fox (Rushand Chamber) and Miss Kat (Jhanaica Van Mook).
It has been somewhat pantoed up. Nicole Louise Lewis is a delight as Krik Krak, an affable anthropomorphic cricket who is more like a ‘sound best mate’ than moralising Disney bore Jiminy Cricket. Michael Bertenshaw is okay as the Blue Rinse Fairy – he’s likeable enough but ultimately feels like a failed attempt to crowbar a dame role into the story.
It all feels like a bit of a stretch. The harsh morality of Collodi’s story simply doesn’t sit right with the frivolity of the form. More moral allegories than rounded characters, Sly Fox and Miss Kat don’t work as pantomime villains. So much stuff happens that it’s frequently hard to follow exactly what is going on.
And yet with all that accepted it’s a spirited attempt, performed with a gale-force enthusiasm, blessed by stunning neon streaked sets and design by Stewart J Charlesworth. If it feels awkwardly stuck between ‘actual panto’ and ‘stage version of Pinocchio’ then there’s fun to be had with its overambitious eccentricity.