Review: Potted Panto, Wilton’s Music Hall

Pantomime is a beloved British institution, but it is not one that everyone grows up with. I certainly did not. My only childhood experience was baffling and rather terrifying, and the few amateur versions I have seen since left me wondering what all the fuss was about. But thanks to Potted Panto at Wilton’s Music Hall, I finally started to understand the magic.

The “Potted” concept is now fairly well-known among London audiences, although this was my first exposure to it. The idea is delightfully simple: instead of staging one pantomime, we get seven. Or eight. Or, depending on how you count them, perhaps even nine. Daniel Clarkson and Gary Trainor take us on a whirlwind race through the classics: Dick Whittington, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk and A Christmas Carol. They even squeeze in the Nativity along the way. If it sounds like too much, it’s not. It is essentially meta-panto or pantomime 101. The show works because of the economy of its production, the skills of its two main players and its ability to laugh at itself and the genre it is part of.

Clarkson and Trainor carry the show with tremendous energy and skill. They are joined by two excellent onstage sidekicks (also apparently the stage managers), James Gulliford and Georgia Corrigan (who has a wonderful singing voice). Together they propel a script that is fast and very funny. Panto conventions are lovingly explained for newcomers, even as the show simultaneously embraces and parodies them: the slapstick, the mess, the audience call-and-response, the toilet humour for the kids and the double entendres for the adults. All of these tracks run together at once, but they lead to the same joyous destination.

Like any good pantomime, the lines are packed with contemporary zingers about current politics and pop culture. Ex-Prince Andrew gets a very edgy gag. The section with the fairies from the north, east and west embodies the show’s recipe for success by combining a wonderful physical gag for the children with pungent political points for the grown-ups. It’s a genuine family show where nobody will feel short changed. 

There is then an additional layer of theatrical or rather company in-jokes. Trainor (who I guess is the newbie in this troupe) gets teased mercilessly about the fact that his illustrious career in the West End has come to an end and now he’s merely doing panto in Wilton’s. This is a smart tack, given Wilton’s rich heritage. They mock their surroundings but there is an affection behind it. Wilton’s, originally a Victorian music hall, feels like the perfect venue for this kind of bawdy comedy delivered to a rowdy audience.

The finale is a kind of mash-up between two of the aforementioned tales, but it’s brief and like the rest of the show doesn’t overstay its welcome. In fact this is where it feels like the energy dips slightly and the writers lose their way a little. The idea might seem clever on paper, but it doesn’t work in the same way that the rest of the show does. That said, the audience then gets a singalong finale, delivered with that knowing sense that we’re all in on the joke. 

Panto may not have been a tradition in my childhood, but Potted Panto might just have changed that tonight. This is clever pantomime done well. Regardless, it’s a cracking way for anyone to get in the Christmas spirit.

Written by Daniel Clarkson, Jefferson Turner and Richard Hurst
Directed by Richard Hurst
Music by Phil Innes
Lighting design by Tim Mascall
Costumes designed by Nicky Bunch
Sound design by Tom Lishman
Set design by Simon Scullion
Presented by James Seabright in association with Wilton’s Music Hall

Potted Panto plays at Wilton’s Music Hall until Saturday 3 January.