Photos – Ross WaldronIf you are still wondering why these end days of the year are called the silly season, get a festive fresher at the Old Fitz with their Christmas panto, Babes In The Woods.
Funnier than a freckle punch in French's Forest, this rollicking ragtag of ratbaggery matches tom foolery with dick foolery to create an hour and a bit of harried foolery.
Traditional panto conceits are given the Down Under with the panto dame being played by a woman of the female gender presenting as something of a cross dressing double crosser, whose daughter is also somewhat of a gender bender, a cosseted, corsetted faux femme fatale called Phyllis.
See Phyllis get the clap as she swoons at the bare lumbar Jack, see the whole cast get the clap with or without the flashing prompt to applause.
There's a plot, from A to B where X marks the spot, but you don't give an F as to why.
The panto dame is called Auntie Averica and she's determined to do away with her niece and nephew, Ruby and Robbie, and claim their inheritance.
Aided and abetted by her hench hen, an emu called Flapgherkin, she conspires to shove the kiddies down a mine shaft and shift her deceased brother's scheckles into her own stash.
Set on a tizzy tinsel set complete with native nativity scene, Babes In The Woods is a chaotically controlled Christmas cracker, a bon mot bon bon, boom tish, where the audience is emphatically encouraged to boo, hiss, heckle, break the fourth wall and bombard the cast with cabbage, brown paper bags of which are lying in wait on your seat to utilise at their indiscretion.
Writer/director/producer Phil Rouse gives us a rousing, full pun intended, neo panto, fully playful with a pinch of political punch.
Annie Byron is voluminous in moustache twirling villainy as the approximate panto dame, Averica, Gabriel Fancourt fetching as Phyllis, Sean Hawkins a limber Jack, Alex Malone and Ildiko Susany a twin treat as Ruby and Robbie, and the scene stealer of the ensemble, Eliza Reilly, well really!, as the slinky necked Flapgherkin AND The Angel of White Privilege.
All this plus Phillipe Klaus on keyboard and a fez to remember!
To quote the Director's Note in the programme, “Have fun. Don't be a wanker.”
Don’t Look Away in association with Red Line Productions presents
BABES IN THE WOODS
by Phil Rouse based on the good works of Tom Wright
Directed by Phil Rouse
Venue: Old Fitz Theatre, 129 Dowling Street (Cnr Cathedral Street), Woolloomooloo
Season: 13 – 21 December 2016 | 6 – 21 January 2017
Price: $38 – $33
Bookings: www.redlineproductions.com.au
