Chris Bullough and Andy Northrup in Snow White – a pantomime, Edmonton Repertory Theatre. Photo supplied.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

“Hello friends!” an extrovert fairy calls out to us, every time she arrives onstage. And every time we holler back, in unison as coached, “Best Fairy Ever!” Now there’s all-ages audience rapport for you.

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Yup, the Christmas panto is back in town, in the charming Capitol Theatre on 120th Street at Fort Edmonton Park, where pantos have made themselves at home, off and on, since 2014. For the occasion, writer/director Jennifer Krezlewicz of the new company Edmonton Repertory Theatre has ransacked the fairy tale Snow White, for a blithely oddball holiday song-and-dance musical comedy that does handsprings off the Grimm remains.

Will we help Cinabon (Debbie Plaquin) get her fairy bona fides, her GFL (graduated fairy licence)? She only has her Learner’s. By the immutable laws of the panto, a Brit export of time-honoured exuberance and eccentricity, we support our allies onstage. Loudly. And we boo their enemies, like the evil court magician Jasper (Chris Bullough) plotting to marry the beautiful princess S.W. (Asiah Holm) against her will. Loudly. And when we’re asked for our input — “I don’t know what I should do! Can you guide me?” — we offer sage advice. Loudly.

Snow White – a pantomime, Edmonton Repertory Theatre. Photo supplied

For Snow White Krezlewicz has assembled a classic panto mash-up of fairy tale riffs, topped up with local allusions, re-purposed pop songs, and dance breaks. And a personable talking Cat named Oregano (Francie Goodwin-Davies), along with other life-sized critters (exeunt pursued by a bear: hold that thought). Kid, a rare bird who works as a mascot for the Edmonton Riverhawks, wanders in and out of the action.

Kid from Edmonton Riverhawks, Snow White, Edmonton Repertory Theatre. Photo supplied.

Ah, and there’s the Dame, de rigueur in matters of pantomime. She’s  a formidably burly deep-voiced sort who looks remarkably, well, festive all dolled up like a cake in Cherie Howard’s costumes. Andy Northrup rises to the comic occasion as Dame Bumbo Bee, confectioner and up-stager extraordinaire — with an assortment of exasperated eye-rolls, winks, and come-hither looks. He’s a riot.

“Never date a hockey player,” the Dame advises, having been over that blue line a few times. And she dismisses shivs about her age like so much lint off a lapel: “I’m fresh as morning dew.”

What gives pantos their distinctive flavour and appeal to every age of kid and grown-up is the rarefied combination of silly and sly, vintage and updated references, generic and local. And Snow White is on it. The kids get the jokes on one level, grown-ups on another. Pantos love their entendres double.

Bullough’s Jasper rises (lowers?) to evil with manic glee. The actor has played Richard III in his time, and this is Tricky Dick on uppers, ricocheting around the stage, gloating over his bad-ness, waving his wand like a conductor. “I’m evil, I’m evil, so don’t mess around with me,” he sings, with an intensity Elvis never achieved.  Michelle Todd is droll as a vague Queen who’s on the brink of her “warmer years,” as per the song “feelin’ hot hot hot.”

And the premier Canadian kids’ entertainer Fred Penner is present as the voice of the Mirror (and in a song, Brave, he wrote especially for the show, in honour of a hero with self-esteem issues), a truth teller with melodic voice and a secret alter-ego, .

Capitol Theatre, Fort Edmonton Park

You’ll get a kick out of the hero-in-progress, played by Rogan Coffey, a self-effacing nebbish who’s afraid of everything, including his impressively A-type mama, the Dame. As a baker who’s been forced to pivot to court huntsman, he has a contemporary career problem. And so does S.W., a princess who’s at heart a biology nerd with a specialty in bug studies, and a preference for jodhpurs over gowns.

They meet by chance at the Christmas Market next door to the Capitol Theatre. And the show is salted and peppered with Edmonton references (the LRT and Stony Plain Road construction are now comic targets, along with the Oilers and premiers with no skills). And you’ve got to love a family show with a classic cake-in-the-face moment.

Anyhow, there is absolutely no use me telling you the story. Will everyone make it through the Slough of Death? Will the hero embrace a quest and discover bravery? Will the Mirror release his true identity? My lips are sealed. Suffice it to say you can take your entire family to Snow White, and hoot and holler and sing along to The Cat Came Back, and have a blast. And there’s holiday magic in that.

Meet writer/director Jennifer Krezlewicz in this 12thnight preview here.

REVIEW

Snow White – A Pantomime

Theatre: Edmonton Repertory Theatre and Wild Heart Collective, as part of Edmonton Christmas Market

Written and directed by: Jennifer Krezlewicz

Starring: Chris Bullough, Andy Northrup, Debbie Plaquin, Francie Goodwin-Davies, Michelle Todd, Asiah Holm, Rogan Coffey, Hanna Kate Skibin, Kevin Tokarsky, Sue Huff, Justin Deveau, Kid from Edmonton Riverhawks

Where: Capitol Theatre, Fort Edmonton Park

Running: through Dec. 17

Tickets: yegxmasmarket.com/capitol-theatre-events