9 December 2024 13:08 PM
There`s a problem with the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy-tale. Can it be right for a poor farmer`s boy to shin up a beanstalk, which has fortuitously grown overnight in his widowed mum`s back garden, enter a giant`s castle, cadge food off the giant`s kindly wife and then steal the giant`s gold while he has his afternoon nap? And he does it successfully not once, but twice before being rumbled on the third occasion, when he has to scarper down the beanstalk and take an axe to it to, thereby causing the pursuing giant to plunge to his death. What has the giant done to deserve this treatment, other than to wander round his castle menacingly muttering “Fe Fi Fo Fum I smell the blood of an Englishman”?
Problem solved in Horsham District Council`s rollicking, hugely entertaining production at the Capitol Theatre, Horsham. By the time the beanstalk grows majestically into the clouds at the end of the first act we know that: the giant (embodied in the voice of Romesh Ranganathan) has eaten the king and, by his agent Fleshcreep, kidnapped the princess just after she and Jack have fallen in love and tricked Jack`s brother, Simon, into selling the family cow for a bag of jelly beans. To cap it all, as Jack climbs the beanstalk, the plan seems to be for the giant to have the princess and the cow for lunch. So no moral equivalence here.
Fleshcreep is played by John Partridge who has had a significant career in theatre and television (including a spell in East Enders}. Here at the Capitol he also makes his debut as a director. And it`s a success. The production moves along at a cracking pace, moving seamlessly from scene to scene, leaving no chance of a child getting bored. Indeed, the whole audience loved it – and in a funny, frenetic take on The Twelve Days of Christmas become part of the show. But obviously the success of any show depends on the cast and here each one of them puts in an enthusiastic polished performance to create this wholly enjoyable pantomime. It runs until the 5thof January.
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