Somewhere within this show’s knot of plot twists and tangles, you may find Rapunzel. While it is traditional for pantos to playfully embroider well-known stories, Jude Christian’s script takes a strand and runs so far with it that the original Grimm fairytale unravels beyond recognition.
That strand is, of course, Rapunzel’s hair. Janet Bird’s design dangles the young princess’s name over the stage in a plait. Giant combs stand at the wings, and the cast first enter with their hair up in towels and foils. But director Francesca Goodridge’s production flows as easily as a snagged comb.
After hearing a prophecy that Rapunzel will bring success to her guardian’s salon, hairdresser Danny Ruff (AKA Dandruff), played by Zoe West, has tricked Rapunzel’s mother into giving him her baby and has held the girl captive since. There is also a clump of convoluted plotlines involving a feckless prince, shop assistants and Danny’s vague, distinctly unthreatening scheme to manufacture magical hairbrushes. Ai Kumar’s imprisoned Rapunzel makes cameo appearances in her own story.
More inexplicably, Danny is also a misogynist who bemoans “women in the workplace”, undercutting West’s efforts to make him an enjoyable villain. A message about independence is tacked on at the end, when Rapunzel defiantly claims her hair as her own. Interspersed throughout are workaday renditions of faintly dated pop songs – from the likes of Alesha Dixon, Natasha Bedingfield and Blondie – which sound like royalty-free imitations you might hear in a salon. And aside from a few ad libs, Michael Starke’s Debbie Updo is a lacklustre rather than riotously sardonic dame.
Adam Keast’s Fairy Fixer-Upper, however, manages to blend Austin Powers and Tom Allen into a nicely shaggy antidote to the archetypal composed fairy narrator. Other highlights include a hairdryer duel, Rapunzel’s bed descending as if carried by her tumbling locks, and a prophet in the form of an enormous mop head. But it all needs a trim and tidy up.
