They too are likely to be kicked out because they can't afford to pay their energy bills, but when they become the subject of a bet between two duelling fairies their fortunes change.
Good fairy Encanta (Sharon Ballard) believes riches won't change them, but wicked fairy Malignia (Karen Mavundukure) thinks they'll be corrupted, so they send the family Cilla, a goose who lays golden eggs. But once they've got riches, Malignia tempts Mother Goose with fame as well, but for the magic to work she'll need to betray her new friend, and send Cilla back to Gooseland (kind of surprised it wasn't Rwanda, given the political digs tend not to be subtle.) After the interval Mother Goose has got the fame she wanted but lost her happiness, and has to try and free Cilla from the King of Gooseland (Adam Brown.)
Harvey's show is fun and funny, although by panto standards positively low-key; the "messy" scene in particular is kept very small-scale, although with an octogenarian knight of the realm on stage in heels, it's not surprising if they don't want to create too many slip hazards. Mother Goose isn't a panto I've seen before, but its story is unusual in that the Dame is the lead role, rather than a scene-stealing supporting character. It gives McKellen the chance to deliver throughout, but outside of the singalongs and call-and-responses there's not a lot of audience participation, and McKellen's flirting is kept pretty strictly for Bishop.
He does of course deliver, both in the double-entendres and the odd moment of dance and physical comedy, and even manages a bit of pathos as his character realises the error of her ways. The fact that the audience is largely only there to see Gandalf is frequently referenced, not least of all by McKellen's tendency to break character because he's convinced they're under attack by orcs. His great theatrical career is regularly contrasted with Bishop's comparative inexperience, and they make a fun team. They're joined by Oscar Conlon-Morrey as their dim son Jack, who takes on much of the call-and-response work with the audience, and falls for energy company enforcer Jill (Simbi Akande) after she sees the error of her ways.
The show references the fact that not a lot of actual children seem to be turning up (with some Stalls seats at £150, I don't know how surprised they should be that they're not full of families of four, and what children there were were packed into the cheap seats with us.) And though by the sounds of things it was being enjoyed by all, it also seems to be tailored more to the adults in the audience than the kids: I'm not very up to date with music so I wondered if the current pop songs that appear in pantos would be unfamiliar to me, but when the opening number was "Boom Shack A Lack" it became apparent that wasn't going to be an issue. I think "Born This Way" might have been the only venture into the current century, and Ballard channelling her inner Tina Turner is probably the musical highlight.
The ensemble, all of whom play animals from the shelter, provide strong support, with some like Mairi Barclay's angry Glaswegian monkey, Gabriel Fleary's bear with boundary issues, and Richard Leeming's oversharing bat getting some fun personality traits. And while Liz Ashcroft's costumes provide the required parade of ridiculous frocks for McKellen, I think my favourite visual gag was Laura Tyrer's cricket in cricket pads. Mother Goose is a fun show and definitely not a cookie-cutter panto, but perhaps not the ideal one for kids: The creative team know this will largely attract adults who want to watch McKellen have a ball, and that's what it caters to.
Mother Goose by Jonathan Harvey is booking until the 29th of January at the Duke of York's Theatre; then continuing on tour to Chichester, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, Liverpool, Oxford, Dublin and Cardiff.
Running time: 2 hour 30 minutes including interval.
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.
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