Review: JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, Kenton Theatre

One of the great joys of the pantomime season is that there is a show local to everyone and no matter the scale of the venue, they can still put on an entertaining family show for the festive season.

Immersion Theatre are certainly demonstrating this at the charming little Kenton Theatre in Henley-on-Thames, which seats around 240 people. The approach to staging has to be adapted to suit the venue size and the technical facilities of the stage. The result this year with Jack and The Beanstalk, as with last year’s excellent Aladdin, is an excellent high energy show and one of the most immersive you will see with the intimacy increasing the level of audience participation, and multiple entrances and exits through the auditorium. When you see young kids dancing in the aisles at the end, you know the show has hit the mark and engaged the audience of all ages.

There is only a cast of eight with five principals and three ensemble and unusually, the script abandons a love interest for Jack so we are left with him seeking to save the cow from the dinner pot of Thunderroar, the giant in a stripped back narrative. They make up for this by working as a team of eight, full of energy and attack, to sell each scene to the audience in what must be an exhausting two-hour running time!

Lara Beth Sas set the tone from the start as a brightly coloured Fairy Sprout with a strong northern accent but a loud and clear voice with good diction and reacting well to the audience and other characters. Opposite her, Christopher Laishley is an equally animated wide-eyed villain as Creepstink, clearly establishing himself as the “Bad Guy” but equally working hard to ‘Let Me Entertain You’.

The comedy is provided by Dan Whitely’s Silly Simon and Brian Elrick’s Scottish Tilly Trott, both bounding around the stage and not missing a trick to engage the audience in some way. The script is full of corny old jokes and mild innuendo but is delivered with such gusto that it feels fresh and funny. They are supported in it by Sam Peggs’ Jack Trott, the hero of the story. Together they deliver the standard of pantomime, ‘The 12 Days’ had at least updated it to an Alan Partridge in a pear tree and five marshmallows, which provides a good bit of comedy business along with the ghost bench scene to ‘Thriller’, and a lip sync routine which has the feel of improvised additions! The water pistols also go down well with the younger members of the audience. The other two key characters played by the ensemble are the upright two-legged mute cow and the Giant who looks like a mean green huge foam muppet but they both have an engaging charm about them. The beanstalk to get to cloudland is an effective projection on the front tab.

The music choices are good, and each number is put across with such energy that the audience naturally want to join in. Songs include ‘Footloose’, ‘Oh What a Night’, ‘Defying Gravity’, ‘YMCA’, and ‘I’m Still Standing’, which are instantly recognisable and enjoyable.

This is a hugely participative and energetic telling of Jack and The Beanstalk, which the young family audience in Henley loved and is a clear demonstration of what can be achieved on a limited budget with a committed cast and a little bit of creativity .

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Nick Wayne

Jack and the Beanstalk plays at the Kenton Theatre until 31 December, with further information here.