Fly away with Wendy and Peter

This year’s offering is Peter Pan and audiences are in for a great time with a new feature thrown in to draw audiences into the action – the Sense-ational odourama.

The sense-ational odourama (and 5c) is given to you as you enter the theatre and has six numbered circles to be scratched when told to do so by a member of the cast.

Be warned – the sense-ational odourama is not for the faint-hearted with some of the circles bearing foul odours when scratched.

While it’s not always pleasant, it is great fun with six interesting odours for your enjoyment.

Taking the lead is Michael Riff Themba as Peter Pan supported by Wendy in the guise of Joanna Abatzoglou and Thembsie Matu as Tinker Bell.

The star of the show is, however, Craig Urbani as Captain Hook who oozed evil, but somehow also manages to exude a certain level of charm.

The show is not a classic rendition of Peter Pan – in fact the lad himself was scarcely in the show – so Hook really made the show worth the watch.

I enjoyed the show but if pushed will admit this wasn’t my favourite of Honeyman’s offerings as it didn’t have the same sense of fun and whimsy she usually brings to the Christmas panto.

All the same though, it was a great afternoon out.

However, while I understand that the arts are not high on the government’s list of grant priorities, and good theatre costs money, there was an awful amount of advertising – a lot more than usual – and far too many unrelated songs which seem to have been added in simply to pass the time.

I also thought that unlike past pantos this one isn’t all that suited to younger patrons who seemed a lot more subdued than in years gone by.

However, with that said, the show is still worth the watch and has a number of great moments which make the advertising worth sitting through.