DAME TROTT'S PANTO PALAVER

It’s not a new idea but still a delicious one. Most fairy tales involve goodies and baddies strutting their stuff in wacky woodlands or Grimm palaces. The saintly Stephen Sondheim set his wonderful musical ‘Into the Woods’ in an enchanted forest where Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Snow White and other fairy talers rubbed their fantastical shoulders. I took on the same theme with a very silly Christmas show called ‘Pantomania’ where Robin Hood fought against the Big Bad Wolf.

Now the Cambridge Arts Theatre has taken up the multi-story format with its upcoming Xmas extravaganza, ‘Dame Trott’s Panto Palaver’. This will be live theatre but suitably Covid safe. The Arts has been closed since March so this will be a grand curtain raiser with a suitably family-oriented and deeply silly script. The malevolence here is no less than Count Covidula, described as the stupidest, baddest baddie that you’ve never heard of. He is sick of good guys and wants to ruin pantomime for everyone. If the show is about Covid getting his comeuppance, then all to the good – after all he’s had a good shot at ruining our country’s crown jewel: theatre. The Count’s bête noire is more bête mottled – Daisy the Cow. She is the comical pet of the panto’s lead character – good old Dame Trott played by local favourite Matt Crosby. Thrown into the crazy mix is Dick Whittington (maybe defeated in a rigged election) and a character called Stoneybroke Lockdown who has to back home by 10pm.

Clearly current affairs and fairy tale farce should provide an entertaining mix that should defeat Le Grand Gremlin and bring Christmas smiles to every theatregoer. There will be the usual mix of song, dance and thigh-slapping, terrible gags, awful puns and cleverly concealed double entendres. If you doubt this, there is only one thing to say: ‘oh yes there will’.

Dame Trott’s Panto Palaver opens on Friday 11 December 2020 and runs until Sunday 3 January 2021. For full information and ticket prices visit www.cambridgeartstheatre.com