Rapunzel, The Theatre, Chipping Norton, review: an old-school, family-friendly, escapist treat
Your panto needs you. It may now be the wrong side of Christmas, but every attendance will help carry the day for those umpteen playhouses that have kept battling through the resurgent Covid tempest to put smiles on folks’ faces.
Judging by the attention the Cotwolds market town of Chipping Norton gets thanks to its high celeb count, its theatre might be thought in little need of moral support. Prue Leith is a local. Residing within easy motoring distance are David Cameron and Elisabeth Murdoch. Jeremy Clarkson, whose hit Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm has caused a spike in visiting petrolheads and property prices, has put the place on the map as never before. Also lurking in this neck of the woods is David Beckham, who’s even been known to visit Chippy’s chippy.
Still, the theatre – a converted 19th-century Salvation Army hall – is as sweetly down to earth, and as hand to mouth, as it gets – typical of those venues that get little fanfare but without which the country’s cultural life would be poorer.
If I have a complaint about this year’s offering – Rapunzel – it’s that Ben Crocker’s script doesn’t let its hair down when it comes to cheeking the town’s burgeoning reputation as a VIP hub. The gag-gauge registers zero emissions about Clarkson. No point fuming about it, though: the shortcoming indicates how quaintly keen the show is on giving us an old-school, family-friendly, escapist treat.
It has to be said that David Ashley’s production doesn’t exactly get off to a flying start. Owing to the initial obscure siting of Rapunzel’s tower aloft, those on the left side of the downstairs seating are forced to crane wildly or stare blankly at the stage while Rhian Lynch delivers her plaintive, Disney’s Tangled-esque opening number.
Faith in proceedings is swiftly restored, though, by the blast of rogueish charisma supplied, from the rear of the auditorium, by panto debutant Alex Cardall as the hero Rudi. He vows to rescue her from her lockdown state (the pertinence is plain) albeit not before a scene-setting flash-back to 18 years earlier, when the dastardly witch Gothel – a gloriously glowering Amy Rhiannon Worth – snaffles the royal baby in revenge for the king’s poaching of her parsley.
That’s about as close as things cleave to the Grimm-relayed original folk tale. The primary activity is a plentiful supply of winning songs – courtesy of composer and lyricist Becky Applin – and bountiful helpings of silliness.
As the pent-up princess, able to cry golden tears, and her initially mercenary-minded rescuer make their escape from the Teutonic realm of Evergreen, they must contend with dastardly pirates armed with stalls-drenching water-cannons and a pugilistic weasel (Anna Soden, delightful). A satirical immigration nightmare also unfolds on the coast of Blighty, requiring our belting out of a Rule Britannia-style anthem at the behest of two comically jobsworth officials.
Although that’s borderline heavy-handed, it all goes down with the pleasing warmth of a bowl of custard. The crème de la crème of the occasion is JJ Henry as the flouncy Dame: heartily incapable of keeping a secret and in regular need of audience-abetted calm-downs. I’ve seen many dames and a heap of pantos in my time, and this combo are just what the bleak new year demands by way of energising ebullience.
Until Jan 9. Tickets: 01608 642350; chippingnortontheatre.com