“Was there, by any chance, a general election this year?” asked no one ever upon leaving RapunzelStiltskin, MADC’s panto offering for this festive season.
Because yes, there was an election this year, and yes, there were lots of jokes about the election, politicians, Franco Debono, Joseph and Simon, Simon and Joseph, Tagħna Lkoll, Daphne Caruana Galizia and Lou Bondì in this particular pantomime, some of which were funny.
As the title suggests, the story behind MADC’s 2013 offering is a hybrid of Rapunzel (here played by Karen Decelis) and Rumpelstiltskin (Luke Saydon), with a healthy dose of Joseph Muscat (only mentioned) thrown in. The main plot, which resurfaces every now and again through the script, successfully manages to weave the two fairy tales into a yarn which provides the backdrop for part of the action.
For this is a pantomime, we are reminded, verbally, every other scene. The performance opens up with a song announcing this is a pantomime, the dame is announced as such and the pantomime is full of references making it amply clear this is a pantomime and that the characters know this is a pantomime and it ends with a song saying it’s pantomime night.
If you came out of RapunzelStiltskin not knowing you were in a pantomime and that Malta had a general election in 2013, you clearly have a habit of ignoring the very, very obvious.
And while in general I am on board with the habit of self-reference, I felt that in this case it was used to such an extent that it robbed the pantomime itself of moments which belonged squarely within the action – the announcement of the dame, as the dame gave the impression that we were only going through the motions of a pantomime.
That said, there are plenty of funny moments, with a couple of embarrassing guffaws coming from my end while the rest of the theatre was chuckling quietly. And if the dialogue or the action or the dancing weren’t enough to keep your attention, you could still feast your eyes on the spectacular costumes, designed by Ernest Camilleri.
The performance I attended on a Monday night was not very well-attended, with many punters probably having left their panto-going until Christmas day is past. I couldn’t spot many children in the audience either, but that may well have been because children are small and can’t be seen if there are adult heads blocking the view.
There are plenty of funny moments, with a couple of embarrassing guffaws coming from my end
The actors, particularly the dame who would need to feed off the audience’s response, were at something of a disadvantage playing to half a theatre. That there was a tendency towards extensive audience interaction certainly didn’t help.
That is not to say this panto is without merits: far from it. Apart from the costumes, the staging, too, was overall very good, and included some audiovisual twists which really pushed up the show a notch.
When it comes to live theatre, however, nothing can replace the role actors have and here, once again, we had a mixed bag. The main cast was solid – Karen Decelis played the role of goody-goody Rapunzel convincingly, while Luke Saydon as Rumpestiltskin breathed tonnes of life into his character, making him easily one of the most entertaining on the show.
Dame Pezza Stanky, Jean-Pierre Busuttil, was very likeable, and his ad-lib during the children’s segment on the nuns of a particular convent school was one of the funniest of the evening.
David Chircop, who played wannabe rapper and the son of a lingerie merchant Monti Gomery had some of the funnier moments of the second act, which saw him put his dancing and singing chops to the test; his father and the dame’s love interest Knight Monti Gomery was given a good interpretation by Karl Cini.
Panto (but certainly not theatre) newcomer Katja Braunesi delivered a solid performance (and sang beautifully) as the witch of Ħal Muscatia, while her two lackeys were interpreted splendidly by Dee Dee Clark and Leanne Vella. Joe Depasquale and Faye Micallef Grimaud, here as Rumplestilstskin’s minions were also charming in their own way.
Keith Zammit’s Fairy character was a great canvas for Camilleri’s costume design, and matched well with Justin Mamo’s Fudd character, who is Rapunzel’s BFF and admirer... until he changes his mind.
The music, directed by Paul Abela was – as is usually the case – tight, although the accompanying choreography was, for the most part, rather tired. Still, it too had its moments, particularly when the Witch sang Applause.
One certainly cannot say writer Steve Hili did not try: the play is choc-a-block full of gags, including two penis jokes right at the start, which was somewhat to be expected from a writer whose musical oeuvre includes songs about necrophilia. The jokes – somewhat disapointingly – very rarely venture away from the world of newspapers. Sometimes it felt some references were being included just for the sake of it.
As a small aside: I couldn’t help thinking that the programme could have used some proofreading – even a light touch would have eliminated some of the hideous errors, which include the name of the panto being misspelt at times and surnames being left out of actors’ bios.
Ultimately, panto is all about having a laugh, and if you’re in the mood for it, you could do much worse than watch RapunzelStiltskin. If anything, the kids in the audience seemed to love it.