“Weans in the Wood is about some weans in a wood,” says the voice of Stirling Stella at the start of the show. It has the circularity of “Brexit means Brexit”, but none of the pretence at certainty. Playwright Johnny McKnight knows, however, he’s not the only one who can’t remember the story of Babes in the Wood. His simple solution is to make up his own.
To do so, he drafts in fairytale favourites, a la Sondheim’s Into the Woods, for a mix-and-match journey into the dark heart of the Pantosphere. Dawn Sievewright’s excellent Little Red, an ambivalent figure tottering between friend and foe, recalls her early days wearing a riding hood, has an estranged grandmother who lives in a Hansel and Gretel-style house made of sweets, and, after Katie Barnett’s lovable Gretel is bewitched into the dark side like Kay in The Snow Queen, re-emerges as an egalitarian Robin Hood.
There’s also a sprinkling of Harry Potter as we enter Magic Merlina’s School for Magical Minors, where a classical battle between good magic and bad distracts us from the wobbly narrative. It’s eclectic, for sure, but this is panto, and the crosscultural leaps are no more inconsistent than Alan Penman’s sunny reworkings of hits by Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato.
In Julie Ellen’s high-energy production, there’s the odd missed moment. The power source for good magic is secreted in the audience with much fanfare, only to be retrieved by the baddies without a fight. With his paintbrush hair and half-mast tartan trousers, Robbie Jack is tremendous as Hans No Solo, but hardly ever gets to use the call-and-response catchphrase he’s taught us.
Helen McAlpine has an infectious energy as the evil Sheriffina Nottingham, complete with Sigue Sigue Sputnik wig and retinue of youth-theatre minions, but she shouldn’t have to plead for the audience’s boos. And after being dragged on stage to spend the night with Mark McDonnell’s dame, a hapless audience member is left to return quietly to his seat without so much as a costume change or round of applause.
But the good cheer of the cast and the high-density barrage of gags cover up the cracks in an entertaining show that never pauses for breath. And at a time when gender-balanced casting is a hot topic, it’s worth remembering that McKnight has been rewiring the panto role models for years.
In this one, Sievewright’s Little Red is the character who makes all the moral choices, a proper female lead on the road to enlightenment, not to mention social activism. Barnett’s Gretel effectively becomes a female Buttons, calling on our sympathy when Hans No Solo rejects her romantic advances but learning the value of independence on the way. James Rottger’s Ronaldo, meanwhile, is less a hunky hero than a self-regarding prat. All this and a burgeoning same-sex love affair treated with happy acceptance.
It sounds radical, but McKnight achieves it in merry, mainstream style, hiding his subversion in plain sight.
• At Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, until 31 December. Box office: 01786 466666.
