comedy duo. Great timing, stupid in the right way, blundering, and ridiculous. Absolutely hilarious - very impressive from the youngsters. On alternate nights, Ping and Pong were also played by Charlie Griffiths and Lucy Barr. I was very kindly shown a recording of a show that they were in, and I have to say, they were equally daft and hilarious. Steve Axon played The Emperor, Jasmine’s father - a pompous yet lovable character with a slight speech impediment that made the audience laugh. He was “won over” by Widow Twankey, much to our surprise, but it was hilarious and just what we wanted from a pantomime “couple”. There were so many great moments in Aladdin that made me laugh out loud. These include a moment where the obvious use of a solid flat for the cave, and a projection on cloth of other rocks was pointed out by Abanazar and Aladdin - something along the lines of “how do you know this is the right rock?” - “everything else is cloth” - complete with Abanazar poking the cloth. Such a simple thing but hilarious. Also, the flying carpet moment was genius! A projection of Bollington filmed by drone, with the characters on the streets below, interacting with each other, or the drone. Really funny, especially when the Emperor was spotted, obviously motioning to “get down here now” - adding to the imaginary carpet carrying Aladdin and Jasmine overhead. Really clever. Oh, and when we saw them “on” the carpet it was even funnier. They had the carpet around their waists, with fake legs on top, and walked around the stage as if flying. It was so bad it was good! The costumes were what I had hoped for - varied, colourful, and a bit bonkers. Stand out costume moments include the scene after Aladdin
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