Theatre
RapunzelStiltskin
Malta Fairs and Convention Centre

It’s that time of year again when people go in droves to the theatre to watch a Christmas panto; they seem to have multiplied from one to several since I was a child.

Pity that this enthusiasm for theatre seems to last only for the duration of the Christmas holidays, but thus fickle is the Maltese interest in the performing arts.

My first excursion into panto-land this year started with a visit to The Tent. Now I have said this before and I will say it again – this is not my favourite venue because it lacks character, but given its hybrid nature as a giant marquee and warehouse, this year it seemed a fitting place to stage MADC’s mash-up production, RapunzelStiltskin.

Touted as being “double the fun” because it’s “two pantos rolled into one”, Steve Hili’s script took the two basic plot lines from two of the lesser-loved Grimm’s fairy tales, blended them, and stretched them as thinly as they could possibly go.

The constant political banter was one of the script’s problems

Rather than spending years imprisoned in a tower, Karen Decelis’s Rapunzel is kidnapped by her village’s resident evildoer, not surprisingly also the mayor – Katja Brauneis’s Witch A. Vili, who gets word that Rapunzel’s mother, Dame Penza Stanky (Jean Pierre Busuttil), has been bragging that she and her daughter are managing to cope in the recession because Rapunzel can weave straw into gold.

Locked in the tower for a couple of days with stacks of straw ready to be woven into gold, Rapunzel desperately wishes for her fairy godmother to help her out; instead she awakens Rumplestiltskin, who, fancying her, makes a bargain to transform the straw into gold, on condition that she marries him.

Like every pretty young woman in her 20s, Rapunzel has already given up on love and agrees to this insane bargain to get herself out of the tower. So far so good, and to be fair, it is an interesting premise, in spite of the fact that one of the underlying themes in Rapunzel’s original story is lost – a young girl’s deep desire to see the world and experience what others do.

What’s also interesting is the fact that hybridising these two stories has been attempted before, in a much more literary and critical manner by Scottish poet Liz Lochhead.

While Lochhead’s poem works on challenging stereotypes, Hili’s script thrives on encouraging them, with Busuttil’s Dame so intent on her social climbing with her “us and them” mentality that she was written unintentionally as a rather irritating character. Thankfully, Busuttil himself made the most of it and drew some laughs by being larger than life, thanks also to Ernest Camilleri’s outrageous costumes. His incredibly apt improvisational skills during the two punter’s scenes – where unsuspecting members of the audience were brought on to the stage to “interact” with the cast in embarrassing games as well as the children’s participation – were the ones in which he excelled.

Of the goodies, Dame Stanky was the one I took a shine to the most, in spite of her too-long catchphrases and rather dry lines which were peppered with political asides. This constant political banter by all the characters was one of the problems with a rather unfunny script. Making the most of all this year’s political fodder resulted in an overdose which proved that enough is as good as a feast: effective editing was entirely thrown out of the window.

While Decelis’s Rapunzel was sweet and likeable enough, her character was underwritten and rather flat as were Justin Mamo’s trusted servant and confidant, Fudd, Karl Cini’s steady Monti Gomery – Dame Stanky’s handsome – and financially stable love interest and Monti Gobay, David Chircop’s take on the panto prince and Rapunzel’s accidental love interest.

Mamo’s Fudd had the pitiful charm that only the friend-zoned exude, while Chircop’s character doubled as an emcee during the interval and pre-show, making the most of his good singing voice and compensating for having been conceived as a rather ineffectual character. His duet with Decelis’s Rapunzel was quite pleasant and brought out the best in these two actors.

Keith Zammit’s Fairygodaddy embodied modern panto’s obsession with punning on the word ‘fairy’ in a manner which can be quite demeaning when you think about it, rather than pushing the envelope as is probably intended. Not all gay men are hairdressers dressed in glittery attire and I’m pretty sure that most people would be wary of being granted wishes by somebody who looks like an extra in a Lady Gaga music video.

While this particular panto fairy made camp damp, I did like the touch at the end where the envelope was pushed in the right direction – Fudd falls for him and suggests a civil union, which is duly accepted.

This was a panto where the baddies ruled. The Witch’s Lackeys Dee Dee Clark and Leanne Vella made the most of their short roles as cheeky, mischievous sprites incredibly well; as did Rumple’s Minions, Joe Depasquale and Faye Micallef Grimaud, whose bumbling incompetence and dazed silliness infuriated their master. I would have liked to see more of these two pairs in action.

Brauneis’s Witch A. Vili gave a good performance as a self-absorbed, miserly schemer and had a couple of good musical numbers to showcase her voice.

The breakout performance of the show was, hands down, Luke Saydon’s Rumplestiltskin, who gave his character all he could, managing to be evil in a slick and sleazy way, while maintaining the right touch of panto humour and making the most of his good singing voice in several controlled and enjoyable performances under Paul Abela’s musical direction.

With a set designed by Peter Howitt and some very interesting backdrop projections, director Steve Casaletto delivered an even performance technically, thanks also to Kristina Schranz’s choreography and the chorus’s singing and voice coaching by Roger Tirazona and Marylou Coppini respectively.

The delivery of the lines was clear and well-paced, the staging adequate and the energy levels high as was reflected in the enjoyable sing-along song sheet.

Despite being a little more mundane than magical, RapunzelStiltskin is still an entertaining night out for the kiddies. Christmas factor: cold mince pies rather than gingerbread.