Mother Goose – Cast, Doncaster

Writer: Ryan Greaves

Additional Material: Anton Benson and Steve Moorewood

Director: Ryan Greaves

Throughout the Easter holidays this year, Anton Benson Productions are touring their Easter pantomime Mother Goose. As Fairy Virtue tells us, panto is for life, not just for Christmas! The lesser known title tells the story of a beloved matriarch who gets tempted to trade her beloved goose for fame and fortune, before realising that money can’t buy happiness and family and friends is what matters in life. It’s a simple but lovely story which provides plenty of opportunities for the traditional panto gags.

Ryan Greaves writes and directs the pantomime, with additional material from Anton Benson and Steve Moorewood. The script has plenty of laughs and a good amount of audience participation. The storytelling can feel a little clunky at times and some of the panto routines feel very shoehorned in rather than naturally fitting in. The TV show titles routine is well executed, whilst the 12 Days of Panto is perhaps the most chaotic your reviewer has ever seen rather than being choreographed with comedic precision.

Helena Ferreira’s choreography adds a good amount of energy to the show. The scale and precision of the dance numbers is quite impressive given the show has a new ensemble of young performers at every venue on its tour. There is a good mix of songs – something for all ages to enjoy. Matthew Wright and Jake Greville do their best to make the music sound good, but at times a little bit of energy does feel lacking. This probably isn’t helped by no ensemble vocals, whether live or pre-recorded, and just a small number of the actors carrying the show musically.

DG Foster takes on the role of Mother Goose. He is a great dame with a strong stage presence and good rapport with his fellow cast mates. He portrays the transition from loving mother to fame-obsessed woman back to kind-hearted mother excellently. It is, a shame, however that he doesn’t get a big, spectacular transformation scene as you would expect Mother Goose to have. He has great fun when picking on a man from the audience but doesn’t come back to him enough throughout the show.

Ryan Greaves as Billy Goose covers both comic and principal boy duties. He is instantly likeable and we long to see his love for the Princess reciprocated. He leads musical numbers excellently, carrying a fair amount of the show musically. He gets the audience involved quickly who initially seemed a little reluctant to join in and people of all ages were definitely throwing themselves into the fun.

Coronation Street‘s Helen Flanagan is clearly having great fun as Princess Jill which means we have fun with her too. However she doesn’t sing solo in the show at all which is very strange for a panto princess. Some stronger direction could have helped her to land her jokes better as the comedy doesn’t seem to come very naturally to her. Basil Brush is a pure delight as King Basil – but let’s not ask questions about how a human can have a fox as a father! He doesn’t have as much stage time as he deserved but makes the most of the time he does have. Audiences of all ages clearly revel in seeing him on stage, whether youngsters meeting him for the first time or the older audience members who grew up him on the TV. He bounces off his fellow cast members excellently and has a huge stage presence for someone so small.

Casualty‘s Amanda Henderson takes on the role of Fairy Virtue. She delivers her rhyming couplets with crystal clarity and a healthy dose of Northern warmth. She is fully incorporated into the action which is lovely to see and she sings well throughout. Darren Day as Demon Vanity is great opposite Henderson, although we don’t get as many back and forths as we might sometimes. Unsurprisingly, Day leads musical numbers with great confidence and charisma. His Bill Sykes cockiness and villainy works perfectly for this role, contrasting to Henderson’s warmth and softness.

The set from UK Productions is colourful, and while some of it has probably been repurposed from other titles, the show has an impressive number of different sets given it moves venue every one to two days. UK Productions also supply most of the costumes which all fit the panto world well. The dame costumes come from David Dale which are wonderfully big but none of them get laughs just from being seen.

Mother Goose is a fun couple of hours at the theatre for all ages, and a great show to take the kids to for some Easter holiday entertainment. It’s unlikely to be the greatest pantomime you’ve ever seen but you will leave with a smile on your face having had a good laugh.

Runs until 9th April 2026, before continuing on tour