Twinkle, Little Star – Review

If someone mentions Kenneth Alan Taylor, you will no doubt think of pantomime. Famously, Taylor has not only written and produced the Nottingham Playhouse pantomime for the last 24 years but he always plays the dame. What you might not know is that he is a fantastic actor and this play gives him a perfect opportunity to demonstrate this. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Philip Meeks’ play is that it wasn’t written with K.A.T. in mind. The play is a monologue delivered by Harold Thropp, an aged pantomime dame, reminiscing about a life spent doing what he loved and regretting the loss of history and tradition. Thropp sits in a dingy dressing room cleverly reproduced on stage in a pantomime style where the furniture is drawn as if in a comic book. Harold goes through his well practised routine as he dons frock, wig and make-up to be Widow Twankey at the turning on of the town’s Christmas lights. He arrives fuming that he has been given a third-class dressing room and this is to be a constant theme as he complains of the decline in respect for pantomime traditions. His arch enemy is Jezz, the famous-for-being-famous reality TV star who is the real draw for the audience. Harold suffers multiple indignities and humiliations as his scenes and costume changes are cut in favour of his brutish nemesis’s cheesy pop tunes. In between these foul-mouthed rants, Harold’s mood becomes more reflective as he tells of his early career as the youngest pantomime dame and the joy of his early performances. He remembers with warmth nights spent cottaging in London’s public conveniences and the odd characters he found there, troubles with the law and his many happy years with his now deceased partner.Harold, living within a world of memory and sentiment, seems to be as obsolete and unsuited to the modern world as others see him. Though he is pitiful, bitter and malicious, we also grow to have respect for him and the tradition he represents as he coaxes us into seeing the world through his eyes. Although this piece is mostly a character study, Harold’s plan for revenge on Jezz is gradually revealed and we share his delightful anticipation of its fulfilment.Since the Lakeside began producing its own plays, they have yet to present anything of less than top-notch quality, mostly it seems thanks to the wonderfully talented producer Matt Aston who co-directs this piece. Twinkle Little Star is another triumph for the Lakeside Adrian Bhagat – Left Lion