The pantos I’ve seen in recent years were disappointing, to say the least. They bored me to tears, they dragged on interminably and the magic was so roughly contrived that the suspension of disbelief was all but left behind in the car park. This means you’ll hardly blame me when my heart sank just a bit when my editor asked me to review this year’s panto offering at the Manoel Theatre – Sleeping Beauty by FM Theatre Productions.
How pleasant, therefore, for the low expectations with which I entered the theatre on opening night to be completely turned on their head by the time I headed out afterwards. Although the show wasn’t without its flaws, it was a thoroughly enjoyable one that had me chuckling away the grinch in me for the best part of three hours.
Much of the success of the production was due to the solid backstage team that was meticulous in its designs, particularly the lighting, the costumes and the Dame’s head-dresses. The choreography by Warren Bonello was also highly effective and put the often-shallow space of the Manoel stage to good use.
The set designs remained functional without going over the top, and as a result the focus remained squarely on the action taking place; the revolving stage ensured that scenes melded seamlessly from one into the next without dissipating the stream of energy.
Pantos are saccharine by nature and, unless they are countered by a solid baddie of the type you love to hate, they risk falling flat. In this respect, Tezara Camilleri stole the show as Maleficent, the evil fairy, delivering an enthralling performance in which she commanded full focus.
She was aided in this by frequent wire-flying stunts, peaking in the ultimate fight scene where, coupled with dragon projections against the backdrop, the effect was truly mesmerising. It was no mean feat for her to be belting out lines and songs while floating 10 feet above the ground, but she did so to great effect.
Matching her energy, but on the opposite pole of amiability was Chiara Hyzler, playing Muddles the Jester. Hyzler too carried off her performance with consistent energy and efficacy, although unfortunately there were some moments when the rest of the goodie clan failed to ride on the energy she provided and allowed the pace of the production to sag slightly.
Maleficent’s two evil acolytes, Korr and Zjoni (played by Rambert Attard and Karen Decelis respectively) were also guilty of this sin, often failing to match Camilleri’s energy and verve in their scenes with her, resulting in performances that felt a little deflated next to that of their mistress.
Decelis’ interpretation of Zjoni was not helped by the fact that she spoke in a Russian accent that rendered many of her lines unintelligible. I failed to understand the reason for this choice of accent, given that it had no bearing on either the character or the plot; it simply came across as a redundant trope.
Counteracting Maleficent as the evil force of the panto were the three good fairies of the North, the South and Gozo, played by Antonella Mifsud, Nicole Cassar and Maria Cassar. All three performances worked very well indeed, with Mifsud in particular commanding the stage each time she stepped out on to it, not least because of the way in which she slayed her home accent.
Also commanding the stage, but with her singing voice instead, was Analise Cassar who played the dual roles of Queen Astra and Sybil. The show could well have done with more of her voice on stage: she was acutely clear in her diction and delivery and an absolute pleasure to listen to.
Talking of diction, this remains an annual bugbear with all panto choruses I have ever had the chance to see on stage in the last 20 years or so. Although their collective performance was executed well and they hit all the right notes and dance moves, I failed to decipher more than a handful of words of what they were singing.
Whether this is a problem of the orchestra playing too loudly, or of them singing too softly I cannot tell, but it is indeed a pity that the chorus song numbers were often a wall of sound – and the effort put into making the scene look good was completely undermined.
Edward Mercieca’s performance as Dame Nanna Kola requires little endorsement from my end. The role of Dame is one that Mercieca has been performing for nigh on 30 years now, but this is one in which I enjoyed his performance more than on other occasions.
I will, instead, direct my comments to his role as script-writer of the production. His was a script that kept the action moving briskly from one scene to the next, and as a result the energy of the whole production kept me from looking at my watch.
My only gripe with the script was the lack of political satire at a time when there is an over-abundance of ripe material ready for the picking. At a time when corruption, environmental degradation and the failings of partisan politics are all too familiar and unfortunate realities, his script felt distinctly timid in this respect and it was a pity that the lines he penned did not pull juicier punches. Panto is precisely the forum where it is permissible to get away with these sort of jibes, and this was a missed opportunity, particularly in the current climate.
All in all, this remains an extremely valid show and one of the better pantos to grace the stages of the Manoel in some time. The young (and the not-so-young) members of the audience were positively buzzing with excitement throughout – and not without good reason.