Review: Adult Panto [Unscripted], Rotunda Theatre Bubble- Brighton Fringe

(Photo Credit: Megan O'Neill)

Dame Wankey has always dreamed of being in a pantomime, this is her big chance and she’s dragging her sons into the mix. This is where you cum in, Daddy Bear. You get to decide the characters, the setting and the title. Absolutely nothing in this filthy little panto is off limits! Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is! Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is!

This show has been around since twenty twenty one, travelling the length around the UK to bring the joy of adult panto to as many people as possible. It is currently on tour, stopping at Birmingham on the thirtieth of May and Hastings on the sixth of June. Then it will head to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where audiences will be able to catch it for free. 

There’s a lot to be said for highly charismatic actors getting us involved even before we’ve entered the stage space. Braving the torrential rain and coastal winds, Campbell Glazier and Danny Scott greet us outside the bubble and ask us to write down adult jokes, which really sets the tone of the show. 

Audience participation is the key to this show and these actors are very skilled at making this feel comfortable. Set up delay? Not a problem, cue the sing along to ‘Hey Baby’, guided by a panto clown. This makes choosing the improvised elements for the show a lot easier because we feel like we have permission to laugh, be silly and the space feels like a community space, all of which tend to make for a great panto.

Keeping the fact that no shows will ever be the same, here’s the set up for the one I saw: The setting is a sex dungeon, the characters are Dame Wankey, a King and Tweedle Dee, and the object of choice is a smelly vibrating sausage roll. It’s a strong start.

When the chaos commences it is glorious and the show goes off the rails so fast. Props to the actors creating their own spanner in the works by deciding that members of the audience who have been high fived must say ‘ahhh’ each time the word ‘sausage roll’ is mentioned. It comes up sooo many times and it just gets funnier as the show goes on. 

Cue the orgasm noises for the ‘Greggs’ finding chest, surprisingly this plays into one of the tropes of panto: a character leaves something on stage and the audience has to make a noise whenever a different character goes near it. This brings us onto the question of does this show actually work as a panto?

Oh yes it does! There’s: call and response, audience participation on stage in the form of a dildo fight with a giant, collective reactions to character entrances/exits and situations, a parody song in the form of re-written lyrics to two iconic songs from the musical ‘Something Rotten’, double entendre and if you count the love interest, Daddy Bear, as an animal then that trope is sort-of included too! All the things we UK folk know and adore about pantomimes, with many unhinged twists. 

The entire cast are gifted improvisers. It’s also worth mentioning that Nick Beat makes one hell of a pantomime Dame with his ability to commit to the bit and clear understanding of the traditions of this particularly iconic character. 

Dirty, flirty and completely off the rails. 

***** Five Stars

Age rating: Eighteen plus

Content notes: Adult Humor/sexual content, strong language, audience participation 

For more information and tickets: https://mattyhurst.co.uk/unscripted-panto/