Peter Pan – Victoria Theatre, Halifax

Director: Robert Marsden

If you have come to Halifax looking for a more traditional panto, one that dares to do the oldie-but-goodie set pieces and hasn’t got hung up on health and safety, you’ve come to the right place.

This production of Peter Pan has a real ‘end of the pier’ feel, with scenes feeling almost like music hall turns, showcasing the skills of the cast. There is tap dancing, big ensemble dance numbers (a cast of 22 is almost double some of the other shows locally), a custard pie type scene complete with pretend cream, a fantastically well-choreographed sword fight and the obligatory flying with wires, not just for Peter Pan, but for Tinkerbell, Wendy, John and Michael too.

The set is fairly complicated, in the sense that it changes pretty much every scene, via a change of backdrop, legs and flats which means that the audience is easily transported to Neverland from Halifax. The slight difficulty with this is that scene changes are longer than ideal, leaving the band to thrash out more jaunty music than should be necessary so that the next scene is ready. This does get a little wearing over time.

Kieran Morris, now in his fourth year at Halifax, is an exuberant Peter Pan with boyish looks and the energy to match. His crowing and jaunty posing is reminiscent of the Disney film and even the hat he wears feels like a nod to the iconic 1953 animated hero. Morris works well with Lucy Hamilton, who deftly plays the slightly stroppy and somewhat spiteful Tinkerbell. It was actually a relief to see and hear a fairy whose purpose wasn’t to narrate huge chunks of the story and talk in rhyming couplets.

Hugely experienced Andrew Pollard excels as panto dame Mrs Smee, who arrives on stage in incrementally more ridiculous outfits every scene, with her understated call and response, ‘Who is it?’ ‘It’s Smee!’ becoming funnier the more she does it. Pollard and Nathan Morris, playing the hapless Mr Starkey, work well as an evil threesome with Aled Thomas Davies (Captain Hook) who plays the straight man against Smee and Starkey’s shenanigans and word puns.

Thomas Davies is a suitably snobbish and boorish Captain Hook, with a distinct lack of sense of humour and the perfect level of grandeur and self-absorption. If he had just been a little bit more evil, and played with the audience more he would have received the boos that he deserved as the villain of the piece.

The ensemble are excellent, one of the most in time and accurate around. The fantastic modern choreography by Laura Grecian is executed perfectly at all times, and neither the adults nor the children are anything but switched on the whole time they were on stage. Of particular note is James Everest, whose dancing is full of charisma and characterisation, and whose facial expressions light up the stage.

This panto has a lot of narrative, Robert Marsden’s scripting and directing leaves no room for ad-libbing or silliness and this is a real shame. There is a feeling that a number of the cast would be even better and funnier if they had time to drop character for a second or interact more with the audience. At times it felt like watching Peter Pan the play as opposed to a panto. Hopefully the cast will feel more free to ad-lib and have some extra bonus fun with each other and the audience as they get further into the run.

Most fun was seeing adults and children alike bobbing up and down in their seats singing My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, the sing-a-long being another more traditional set piece that has been included. This panto is good family fun, that doesn’t rely on stars or celebrities to pull in the crowds – because it doesn’t need to.

Runs until 5th January 2025