Audience participation doesn’t usually start until after a performance has begun. This rainy afternoon in Scarborough, though, things aren’t going to plan. Somebody from front of house is telling us that the actor playing the role of Genie is indisposed.
Can the show go on, given the crucial role of this mighty djinn – as necessary to the plot of Nick Lane’s present-day adaptation of Aladdin as to the original story by 17th-century Syrian writer Ḥannā Diyāb? It can! Musical director Alex Weatherhill will play the part (he is also an actor). Will we help him by cheering him along? “Yes!” roar rows of children, festooned with sparkling things and flashing lights. “Yes!” echo the adults – and we’re off.
In a north-eastern seaside town, young Aladdin is setting up his magic stall, supervised by his mother. The lad is rubbish at tricks and no better at spotting a baddie. Off he trots with his “uncle” Barcaza to find the magic lamp. Enter Weatherhill – uncostumed; script in hand – to loud hurrahs. Two minutes later, any sympathy support is dissipated. Disbelief is fully suspended: Weatherhill has us convinced, he is the Genie. Here is true magic: people, of all ages and conditions, collectively re-imagining reality.
Is the story slight? Yes. Does it matter? A bit, but not enough to spoil the pleasure generated by the performances. Five actors, under Gemma Fairlie’s direction, portray 13 characters in song-sprinkled fantasticality (Simon Slater, credited with magic consultancy as well as musical composition, reworks pop songs including – how could he not? – Abracadabra). Alongside Weatherhill’s superb Genie we have Matthew Koon’s engaging Aladdin (master of the flying carpet), David Ahmad’s dastardly Barcaza (“I’m the villain, ha ha!”), Ash Weir’s Princess Jeannie turned chicken (the consequence of Barcaza’s wicked spell), who flutters up and down the aisles in full-on method style, and, last but not least, Jessica Dennis’s Hairy Bob – hirsute and flatulent (olfactory special effects, happily, not included).
Aladdin is at the Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough, until 28 December
