Posted in: Pop Culture | Tagged: islington, jeremy corbyn, LGBTQ, london, Pantomime, Sir Ian McKellen, trans, Wicked Witches

Jeremy Corbyn's Party & Ian McKellen on James Corden in Wicked Witches

Jeremy Corbyn on organising new parties and Sir Ian McKellen on the trouble with James Corden in the new Wicked Witches pantomime.

Wicked Witches is a pantomime with even more drag than usual, and straddling the family/adult audience for traditional Christmas pantomimes by giving us both a family-friendly version and a decidedly more adult affair, at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington, London. I do hope the performers remember which audience is which. But to be fair, pantomime has always had the most adult of jokes thrown over the heads of the kiddies…

The headlines have naturally been grabbed by Jeremy Corbyn MP for Islington, and former Leader Of The Opposition and Labour Party leader, now co-founder of the rather left-wing Your Party, currently in organisational turmoil. He has been cast as the Wizard of Oz-lington, in this take on the Wizard Of Oz and Wicked. He appears on recorded video, giving our cast advice on how to find the Emerald City, where he is throwing a new party… but as he points out, organising parties is a lot harder than he thought. His advice, to avoid a path that is "right" and that is wrong, but to find your own way, somewhere in between, is dismissed by Dor as "centrist rubbish", a belter of a gag and possibly my favourite of the night.

The other headline grabber in a similar role is Sir Ian McKellen, appearing with animal ears onscreen as Toto the talking dog, as he tells us "None Shall Bark",  who is rather unique in that he likes Cats – the film of course, extolling its "wonderful cast" though "I'm not too sure about James Corden". He has his own advice to give, but keeps coming back to growling about James Corden. After Toto bids us goodbye, telling the cast to "Fly You fools, fly!" Dor breaks character to inform the audience that they hardly scripted any of that. "We didn't ask him to say anything about James Corden," they say. It was just where McKellen went with it…

And yes, Dor – formerly known as Dorothy – is now twenty years older and non-binary, but still the Principal Boy role, if that's not misgendering. We are told that non-binary people always choose one-syllable names, and some audience interaction with an NB audience member with two syllables suggested they may be faking it… but that they'll be down to one syllable by the end of the show. Dor tells us that they are "from Kansas with the accent and everything" while not giving us a hint of anything outside the M25, and from America "where everything is fine". Played by Ro Suppa, it was probably my favourite performance of the night, in terms of subtext, sarcasm, something underplayed and knowing, rather than a caricature of Judy Garland. Early audience participation, asking someone to pinch them on the arm after returning in Oz-lington, "higher, higher, higher, I'll feel nothing past the nipple due to my top surgery", got cheers, and more and more shirt buttons were popped through the show.

Gigi Zahir also had a superb turn as the wicked witch Adelphaba, or Adele for short, with every excuse to drop references to the singer and belt out all manner of numbers. They were matched by Eleanor Burke as the good witch Kelly (she is Oz born, you see), both playing up classic drag roles, but uniquely in pantomime, jumping between the role of the goodie and the baddie, with the audience switching their allegiance, with the cheers and boos to match, as the plot developed and Kelly starts to build a yellow brick wall to keep undesirables out of the Emerald City. And I may be haunted by her description while waiting for The Scarecrow to finish a task that she'll have "grown an anal beard" by the time he's finished. Yes, I did go to the more adult version. Lew Ray was very engaging on stage, no longer the Tin Man, just goes by Tin, part of their own journey to becoming a Tin Woman (turns out, as a walking, talking machine, they are binary after all), with a handy weather machine and wrist-based piano for the dance numbers. Nick MacDuff played the clumsy fool, as Scarecrow and hand-puppeting the Lion, the characters were intentionally dominated by others, making for a less rounded-out part and may have suffered for looking less like the classic Scarecrow.

But for all Wicked Witches plays up the drag aspects, it's only working up what is already there in classic pantomime, making the drag more text than subtext. It is just as full of topical cultural references stitched together with a classic plot as any other pantomime, though Wicked Witches has the benefit of people able to grab Wicked references easily, such as how throwing sweets at the audience may be "Defying Cavities", but it also has Jet 2 Holidays, See It Say It Sorted, Labubus, Rick Astley and the gentrification of Oz-lington since Dor was last here twenty years ago, as they are battling the blizzards of Oz, noticing that there are now "Gales" on every corner. Okay, that was a pretty good one, too. I challenge the most cynical of unwoke audience members dragged along by a younger family member not to find yourself clapping and cheering along at the overwhelming positivity of it all. Unless, of course, you were the much-abused Benjy in the front row… but I think even he had a wickedly good time of it by the end.

Wicked Witches – A Popular Panto! for all ages runs in the afternoon and early evening from the 21st of November to the 28th of December. Wicked Witches Panto – For Adults! runs in the late evening from the 18th of November to the 22nd of December. Written and directed by Shane ShayShay Konno, produced by Pleasance, in association with The Vaults.

Wicked Witches

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Review by Rich Johnston

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8/10

Wicked Witches is a pantomime with even more drag than usual, straddling the family/adult audience for traditional Christmas shows by giving us both a family-friendly version and a decidedly more adult affair in London.

Credits

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Actor

Ro Suppa

Actor

Gigi Zahir

Actor

Eleanor Burke

Actor

Nick MacDuff

Actor

Lew Ray

Actor

Jeremy Corbyn

Actor

Sir Ian McKellan

Director

ShayShay

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