Mama Goose Review – The boisterous satirical panto is a carnival of color and style | Bantu season

eLon Musk as a pantomime villain? This is the scene with which we are all familiar. But a panto villain like Elon Musk? This is perhaps the first of its kind in Vicky Stone and Tondray Monivu’s Christmas show, which doesn’t stop at satirical asides – nor, I’m happy to report, raucous festive fun. Musk is shown scaring our three heroes when they hijack a SpaceX rocket to rescue Gary the Goose from interstellar captivity (for some reason). Previously owned by the good fairy WTF, he’s been kidnapped by her best friend – and if these two give off strong feelings for Glinda and Elphaba, well, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

There’s something to taste everywhere you look, starting with the haughty West African lady played by Duane Gooden, who “puts breast in her title.” She’s the queen of everything she shows off here, both the heroine whose journey to and back from the dark side of consumer self-absorption forms the backbone of the story, and the advertising editor whose background conversation with the audience provides many of its liveliest moments. We also see Ché Walker flapping around like a golden goose laying eggs, like some Cockney Christmas ghost. and a pair of young sweethearts, lead boy Jack and his electronic lover, whose mutual attraction is both happily communicated (“I know you’re a robot / But I like you so much”) and utterly adorable at the same time.

Stuart Charlesworth’s design turns the whole thing into one big, wonderful carnival of color and style, and there’s plenty to enjoy in Robert Hayman’s African-hued score, too. There’s no point in pretending that the narrative is entirely coherent – ​​it is a panto, after all – but I admired Stone and Moniveau’s effort to assemble this golden-egg fairy tale into a sparkling tale of our garish and seedy times. Sarcastic songs about how much we love billionaires? A dialogue that throws dirt on the urban corporate hell on this theater’s doorstep? I’m here for that. Add to that the great performances (among them the sinister Mya Fox-Scott) from a solid cast of eight who work hard for each other and clearly have a ball, and you’ve got a treat to cherish.