Jack and the Beanstalk

Oh No It Isn’t …
Mrs CBL and I together with our daughter and son-in-law were at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen for this evening’s performance of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.  Last year we had been royally entertained by the same cast performing ‘Sleeping Beauty’.

It was full of fun and was a brilliant mix of singing and dancing as well as lots of slapstick, silliness, audience participation and all the fairytale magic of  a traditional pantomime! It also had a special feature section of 3D effects. Oh no it didn’t!  Oh yes it did!

Putting on our special 3D glasses resulted in lots of spiders and creepy crawlies jumping out of the beanstalk into the audience as our heroes climbed the beanstalk to rescue Jill. Then the giant got lots of screams as he woke up from his slumbers and lumbered around the theatre looking for a snack.  It was very scary especially for those still eating their tubs of ice cream purchased at the interval.

The two main stars were Greg McHugh and Alan McHugh (they are not related).  Greg, some of you may remember, starred in a BBC Scotland televison cult comedy show called ‘Gary, Tank Commander’ and was on top form.  Alan is a well known local actor, who is also the scriptwriter, this is his twenty-first panto in a row which indicates just how highly regarded he is.  

As his stories are always set in Aberdeenshire he includes lots of local references and the use of Doric (the local dialect) which makes it even more couthy.  All of us thoroughly enjoyed the panto and thought it was most definitely on a par with last year’s show.  It might just have edged it though, it’s a very close call.  Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is!

Before the show the four of us enjoyed an Italian meal and a bottle or two of fizz, which put us in the right mood for some silliness.

All in all it was a brilliant day and the panto has certainly got us in the mood for Christmas!