The modern Courtyard Theatre in Hereford, with its attractive facilities, is celebrating its 25th anniversary and for twenty four of those years, Lyndsay Maples has written its annual pantomime. Last year, her script for Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Script and Artistic Director Estelle Van Warmelo won Best Director at the UK Pantomime Association’s annual awards. They combine again this year in reimagining Dick Whittington as a sheep farmer from Hereford seeking his fortune in London. It is a curious mix of traditional period costumes, mobile phones, CCTV, instagram and a man-made Artificial Intelligence Simulation first edition robot, or Maisie for short. That, at least, connects it well with the younger members of the audience, although the occasional adult innuendo flew silently over their heads at the matinee!

King Rat, becomes a nickname of a London Mayor candidate, and is played with great gusto by Chris Chandler, successfully winding up the audience and turning up to thwart the efforts of Alice (Sian Gentle-Green) and Dick (Callum Henderson). When he sets up the theft of cash from the safe by Dick, he delivers a brilliant ‘Reviewing the Situation’ as he stealthily moves around the shop with four policemen pointing torches through the windows. It is a clever show highlight freshening up the traditional business with a cleverly rewritten lyrics of familiar songs. Indeed, Lyndsay Maples gives many songs the same treatment so that they flow from and enhance the storytelling as they are sung. ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’ introduces us to Alice, ‘House of Fun’ sets the scene for the shop, ‘Hallelujah’ celebrates the dream sequence to turn back Dick Whittington, ‘Padam Padam’ signals the storm on the ship, and ‘Bad’ accompanies trouble on the beach they are washed up on. This is a very successful feature of the show.

Dame Penny Drops, played by experienced Welsh actor Dion Davies, has to work very hard but has a very good piece of business with a member of the audience who is invited on stage to be a replacement shop window dummy, and makes the most of throwing sweets out to the audience. However, much of the comedy does not land with the matinee audience. An ensemble of four play customers, crew members and sheep in some attractively choreographed dance routines by Graeme Pickering.

Andrew Franklin plays the “cute, good looking cat”, his words as he talks from the start and strikes up a singing and tap partnership with Dick, before inexplicably becoming the next Mayor of London at the end. If this was intended as a satirical comment on the last two Mayors of London, it needed more than a zip wire reference to land the joke. Madeline MacMahon plays Maisie, with very good consistent characterisation aided by the screen on her chest, but while it is a creative update, it does not land like the magic of Fairy BowBells does.

The production looks good with Mark Walters’ Glitter Pantomimes’ Dick Whittington set, having all the traditional features and a very good flying throne to end Act One, with effective lighting to show it off. The creative team have clearly worked hard to make their version of this story different, more modern and connect with a young audience, and there is much to admire but the absence of much of the traditional pantomime business and the original narrative undermined their efforts and not all the updates work. But there is still enough to satisfy the Hereford audiences this year. Oh yes there is!

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Nick Wayne

Dick Whittington plays at The Courtyard in Hereford until 6 January 2024, with further information here.