The Stage

Mother Goose

Published Tuesday 14 December 2010 at 14:24 by Richard Edmonds

I came away from this delightful, totally smut-free, family panto with one thing fixed permanently in my mind - never say ‘stuffing’ to a goose.

A scene from Mother Goose at Royal Spa Centre, Leamington Spa

The slightest mention of the traditional mix of onions, breadcrumbs, butter and herbs sent Priscilla the Goose scuttling into the wings with shrieks of dismay. Although stress saw her in no way disadvantaged when it came to laying the golden eggs, which the greedy Squire (William Finkenrath) wheeled away by the barrow-load until you could be forgiven for thinking Easter had come early.

All this drollery was to help Jonathan Owen’s benign Mother Goose pay her rent, something which hitherto she had treated with that marvellous insouciance endemic among pantomime dames at this time of year. The main concern of most dames is getting onstage in a succession of outrageous frocks and flirting with good-looking guys in the audience - things Owen did with the rich skills of a seasoned performer, thus raising huge belly laughs.

Elsewhere, I enjoyed the timeless rivalry between the Demon Discontent (the excellent Michael Royce) and Fairy (Katie Lavelli), although parts of the production seem a tad undernourished and, in these places, a little of Neil Bull’s frenetic, motormouth Archie, goes a long, long way.