The Stage

Jack and the Beanstalk

Published Monday 12 December 2011 at 11:11 by Lesley Bates

Three feisty females dominate a panto that should have been one for the boys with all that beanstalk climbing, giant killing and rescuing of golden egg-laying hens.

Emily Butterfield (Fairy Sweetpea) in Jack and the Beanstalk at Salisbury Playhouse (previous picture shows Tim Treslove as Ivor G Bogey) Photo: Keith Pattison

Instead, writer Mark Clements (whose fourth panto for the Playhouse this is) turns the whole gender stereotype on its head, which is pretty much what panto is all about anyway, with a plot that puts the girls in the driving seat.

Between them, Emily Butterfield’s punky Fairy Sweet Pea, excitable girl-guiding Silly Jilly (a star turn from Denise Hoey) and Sammy Andrews’ beautiful Rose, who can punch a giant in the nose without breaking sweat, ensure that Mark Anderson’s teenage poseur of a Jack goes from zero to hero and returns from Blunderbore’s castle a richer lad in character as well as cash.

Other elements are deeply traditional - squeaky-clean script, gorgeous costumes courtesy of designer Karen McKeown, a very funny dame (Alan McMahon, who is not on nearly enough) and oodles of audience participation. Much of the latter was directed at Tim Treslove, on fine form as evil henchman Ivor Bogey.

Members of the Playhouse’s own youth theatre swell the ranks of villagers cheering Jack on, while youth theatre alumnus Ben Occhipinti steps up to the director’s plate to deliver a lively, family-friendly production.

Playhouse associate theatre company Stuff and Nonsense created the cow, the hen and quite the unscariest giant, ensuring no one went home frightened - not even me.