December has snuck up on us once again, and with the longer nights and frosty mornings comes one of the UK’s most beloved traditions: panto season.
Last Saturday evening, I was lucky enough to catch Mama Goose at Stratford East. The festive production, written and directed by Vikki Stone and Tonderai Munyevu, gives audiences a distinctly Stratford twist on the classic panto tale.
A brief confession before I go on: I’m from New York, and pantomimes are a very English phenomenon. I didn’t grow up with the tradition of actors shouting at audiences and audiences shouting back. Perhaps that’s because New Yorkers are loud enough already. I should also admit I had arrived at the theatre with a lingering winter cold and no voice. I didn’t know much, but I’d gathered one thing you’re supposed to bring to a panto is your ability to yell. I felt like a failed audience member already.
However, once I found my seat I was struck, as always, by how this beautiful building, well over a century old, sits just moments from Westfield and the Stratford Centre. This was a fact the panto reminds audiences of throughout.
The auditorium slowly filled with people of all ages - from families to groups of adults clutching seasonal beers - everyone settling in for a night of nostalgia and laughter. The couple next to me offered me a Percy Pig, and when I whispered that my voice was gone, they laughed: “No screaming from you tonight then.” I nodded, suddenly all too aware of exactly what I was in for.
As the lights dimmed, the stage burst into life. The set design, a vibrant collision of funhouse neon and textile-inspired patterns, instantly transported us into a dreamier version of Stratford: the world of Mama Goose.
Musical numbers were delivered by a cast whose voices are as strong as their comedic instincts, some of them with several with West End and Globe theatre credits to their names. The script cleverly weaves in some contemporary themes, from the cost-of-living crisis and tax to the wave of local gentrification, making clever use of the motif of the golden egg-laying goose. The subject matter may be weighty, but the writers’ wit and the show’s lighthearted nature, kept everything buoyant.
“In a world that tells us to look out only for ourselves… this panto reminds us that family matters, and that more often than not, we already have everything we really need,” note directors Stone and Munyevu.
The sentiment lands largely thanks to Duane Gooden, whose Mama Goose, complete with a thick Ghanaian accent, is the undeniable star of the show. Gooden is one of those performers you can’t imagine the production existing without: sometimes morally ambiguous, always funny, and constantly interacting with the audience.
The rest of the actors kept pace with him easily, playing off each other’s tiny slip-ups and inside jokes that only a cast living the same show night after night would notice. The costumes were bold and wonderfully absurd - even the slow costume changes were turned into a joke and accompanied by an unexpected appearance from Katy Perry (you truly have to see it to believe it). The golden egg-laying Gary the Goose’s outfit alone - picture a pub-frequenting Cockney geezer as a bird - is worth the ticket.
The organised chaos had swept everyone up. Everyone danced, and I found myself wishing I could shout and scream along with my fellow audience-members - and wanting to see the show again just to do so.
The audience wasn’t carried along by hit-or-miss gags (a panto staple), but by a cast that was genuinely funny and clearly having the time of their lives. Their fun was contagious.
When the lights came up and the pews filtered out into the night, spirits were high. A child behind me exclaimed: “Best night ever!” and, as I grinned all the way home, I couldn’t help but agree.
