How wonderful it was to join a live audience at the Helix Theatre recently, to share in the launch of their Christmas Panto. Introduced by Claire Tighe of TheatreWorx, who also spoke about the energy that a live audience brings and how all the cast, crew and production team missed this so much during Christmas 2020. “It’s great to be back” Claire stated, as the curtain rose for the 2021 TheatreWorx production of ‘Red Riding Hood’.

Written by Karl Harpur and produced and directed by Claire Tighe, Red Riding Hood introduces the audience to a host of favourite, fairy tale characters. Their home of Merryville is under threat from the ‘Great Darkness’, who is attempting to steal away fairy tale characters, with the help of the Panto baddie “Winston the Warlock”, played by the wonderful Paul Byrom.

Regular Panto goers will recognise a familiar and gifted cast, with main characters played by Aisling Sharkey as ‘Red’ and Chris Corroon as the outrageous ‘Lola’. Together they embark on the quest of finding and completing the storybook, before ‘Winston the Warlock’ gets there first. The journey takes them through the Enchanted Forest where they meet other fairy tale characters in hiding –  the ‘Beast’, ‘Gary The Pig’ and ‘Goldie’, played by James Deegan, Brian Dalton and Orla Jennings. James is wonderful as the aristocratic and superbly costumed ‘Beast’, who brings extra chuckles with his grace and style, whispering into the air and over acting at every opportunity. Garry is trying to find himself after losing his home – it blew down don’t ya know! – and Goldie picked up a new accent while travelling in Ireland.

There’s some great chemistry here and together they help Red and Lola navigate to the Lost Land to save Merryville.

Aisling Sharkey looks superb as Red and holds the stage with some commanding vocals. Chris Corroon must dress as Lola every day ‘cause he’s just a natural and deliveroos a great performance again this year!

No Panto would be the same without the funnies (or Paul Byrom’s eyebrows) and The Helix panto just wouldn’t be the same without those two crowd favourites – Buddy and Laurel, played by the loveable and equally talented Colin Hughes and Aidan Mannion. Goldie loves Buddy and Laurel loves Bernard (and Lola loves Paddy?). Not only do they keep the audience entertained with some great gags and escapades but they also manage to keep the cast on their toes with some great one liners and ‘ad libs’. (The cast are having as much fun as the audience and rightly so!)

Sets and costumes are on point and a flamboyant and superbly agile troupe of dancers keep the audience toes tapping through some lively dance numbers. We also have to give a special mention to Bradley Byrom (playing himself), who is such a professional and manages to capture audience hearts everytime we see him. You’ll just have to go and see for yourself to understand!  

Congrats to TheatreWorx and everyone involved  – this Panto is pure fun and we all need it now more than ever!

Red Riding Hood runs from Friday, 26th November 2021 to Sunday, 9th January 2022. Tickets are available from The Helix Dublin