Anna Marie Galea gets transported to the magical Kingdom of Kitchnik with this year’s MADC panto offering, Un-Believe It!
A yearly event for many Maltese families, Christmas wouldn’t quite be Christmas without Alan Montanaro’s booming voice and fabulous costumes, which make carnival lovers blush in dismay at not having thought of having lighting up boobs against a patent red backdrop sooner. Indeed, there are few things like a rollicking, raucous night at the pantomime and this year was absolutely no different.
Held at the Malta Fairs and Conferences Centre in Ta’ Qali and directed by Nanette Brimmer, MADC’s Un-Believe It! moved away from the usual fairytales, which are obviously fertile ground for the stand-ard assortment of goodies, baddies and everything in between.
Instead, it adapted the much loved classic, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (complete with yellow, be-eyelashed, car). The tale of Penelope and Peter Potter is a simple one: the children of not-so-successful inventor Professor Potter spend their time playing with a car at a local junkyard and skipping school, till Dame Vera Tastee discovers them and decides to call out their father on his poor parenting skills.
Unbeknown to them, a plan has been hatched by Whilhelm and Vilma to steal the children and take them to the land of Kitchnik. Thanks to Vera’s purchasing of the junkyard car and Professor Potts’ mechanical talents, the car becomes the ultimate birthday gift for the King of Kitchnik.
This, of course, results in the children’s grandfather being kidnapped and ends with the entire family and Vera flying to Kitchnik in the car and liberating the country from the horrible King and Queen. Indeed, as far as my childhood affections were concerned, the cast really had their work cut out as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was my sister’s and my favourite film and much to my mother’s dismay we would watch it on repeat for days on end. However, I can gladly say that it succeeded in reawakening my inner child.
Its beautifully-created setting, clever storyline and larger than life characters, Un-Believe It! succeeded in bringing to life a well-worn classic and gave it a new twist
If anyone has seen the original, they will remember the fragile and delicate beauty of Truly Scrumptious and, indeed, this image couldn’t be more removed from Vera Tastee. Yet, magically and as he succeeds every year, Alan Montanaro was triumphant in bringing to life this larger-than-life character, a veritable tart with a heart underneath all the paint and tulle. Not only was Dame Vera Tastee funny without being overly brash, but Montanaro also managed to make her appear almost vulnerable and naïve, which is no mean feat when one remembers that she’s played by a towering man smothered in net and sequins, with some pretty impressive pins that would give Tina Turner a good run for her money.
Something I particularly appreciated was the fact that, while there were some politically-themed jokes, it was not overdone and at no point did I feel that it was too saturated with political references. Kudos to Montanaro for keeping it classy, while looking like he had been swallowed whole by a meringue.
Of course, while the Dame is obviously always the focal point in every panto (it would be quite impossible to miss her), there was definitely some pretty amazing talent on the MFCC stage. The child catcher who was so feared by my sister as a child was played to perfection by Michael Mangion and sent shivers down my spine. Renato Dimech’s King of Kitchnik was the big baby king par excellence and Antonella Mifsud’s Vilma was the Vilmiest Vilma who ever lived with her Allo ‘Allo German accent, snide comments and villainous laugh.
Undeniably, the script really managed to bring out the characters’ different personae and meld them together beautifully. All the action on stage was choreographed beautifully by Francesco Joseph Nicodeme – I especially enjoyed Montanaro’s rendition of this year’s Maltasong winner, Walk on Water, replete with unnecessary, black-clad dancer.
Although the scenes shift from setting to setting, complete with flying car as mode of transportation, this was all very cleverly done and the magic of the evening was really kept intact as the shining eyes of the little girl next to me were testament.
With its beautifully-created setting, clever storyline and larger than life characters, Un-Believe It! succeeded in bringing to life a well-worn classic and gave it a new twist which had the older members of the audience reaching into their own childhoods. Throughout its three-hour tenure, Un-Believe It! was able to bring the perfect blend of fairy dust and panto magic.