Writer/Director Ben Richards
The season of all-out family entertainment is here. Like everything else about Christmas, panto season seems to come around so quickly, and with so many choices in the North West it might be hard to decide where to spend your ticket money. After all, taking the family to the theatre is quite a stretch. So, if you’re anywhere near Bury, The Met’s offering this year might just be the answer.
The Met is a friendly, welcoming theatre, full of cheer all year round, with ticket prices kept as affordable as possible. The ideal place, then, to kick off the festive season, and like the theatre itself, this panto, made in partnership with local production company The Big Tiny, is about at ‘Bury’ as it’s going to get.
The Poop Family run a black pudding stall on Bury Market. When the Mayor’s daughter falls in love with one of the Poop brothers, her father’s not happy and hires the Pied Piper to get her out of town to his underground lair on the other side of the Pennines (Boooo!). As everyone comes together in a rescue mission, disagreements are put aside as they contend with ghosts, fading magical powers and general slapstick incompetence. At least that’s probably what happens. It’s all just mostly delightful silliness. Oh, and yes, poop jokes come thick and fast (which is not one of them), delighting audience members of all ages.
Writer and Director Ben Richards has created a bespoke panto for The Met that has the perfect balance of traditional tomfoolery, some great upbeat musical numbers, and, best of all, celebrates everything about Bury. From local-boy Robert Peel to black puddings, Bee Buses to Andy Burnham, the sharp, witty script is packed with local references and blistering jibes at neighbouring Greater Manchester boroughs.
A hard-working cast of seven, plus five young people from the theatre’s Young Company, race through all the traditional panto favourites with a healthy number of shout-out and sing-along opportunities from the audience. Nathan Hobley-Smith (The Pied Piper) is enthusiastically booed as he slithers his way around the stage spreading his evil magic. An enthusiastic Toby West keeps up the on-stage and audience energy as Pee Wee Poop, filling all those potentially drawn-out scene and costume changes, and Anthony Gyde as Little Bea Poop absolutely smashes it as a monumental and gloriously northern drag queen dame.
Simple, bright and traditional set design by William Cousins works brilliantly on the Met’s small-ish stage, allowing for quick scene changes and creating a backdrop for his fun costumes. While the Mayor and his daughter Anna sport some fine fruit-themed outfits, they’re all rather outshone, as they should be, by the Dame’s constantly changing over-the-top outfits, and some gloriously ridiculous wigs.
While the pace of the show is good, it comes to a rather abrupt end. The complexity of the final costume change necessitates a bit of audience banter and call outs which brings things down a bit just when it should be building to a final big moment, but there’s an energetic curtain call and a final song, and by then we’re all pretty much laughed out, and it’s time for little ones to be in bed, having had a great family night out that won’t disappoint.
Runs until 28 December 2025
