The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 21

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1996 21 It's that time of year again when large men don dresses and bloomers but pantomime isn't as easy as it looks There ain't nothing like a dame Picture: PETER SMITH Charles Spencer meets the man who turned down a part in Jesus Christ Superstar to play panto in ing Dame a gleefully ESMOND like a Trott very sweetshop, trying Barrit, large on costumes look- was boy his for size. There were huge tartans, a riot of sequins, enormous padded bras, though no sign yet of the three-tier, wedding cake he'll be wearing for the grand finale. Do you like children, Des?" someone asked. The mighty Barrit swung round, assumed a malevolent leer. "Yes, boiled," he replied, without missing a beat.

It's that time year again, the panto season, when, in Arthur Askey's evocative phrase, theatres are filled with the delicate aroma of wee-wee and oranges. During my years as a secondstring theatre critic, I overdosed on panto. I'd always loved this improbable genre, the last and most important refuge of the dying of British variety, but watching half a dozen pantomimes a year for a decade can strain even the strongest loyalty. When the rest of the theatre is going berserk during the "Behind You!" routine, and you find yourself longing for a nice quiet bit of Chekhov, you know it's time for a break. But talking to Barrit, one of the funniest men on the British stage, I regained all my old enthusiasm.

Des has been away from panto for the past 10 years, making Eight weeks as Dame Trott earns him the equivalent of a year's salary at the RSC a considerable name for himself i in what he grandly describes as the theatre. Those who have seen it are unlikely to forget his mighty Bottom in Adrian Noble's A Midsummer Night's Dream, now captured for posterity film. In recent years he's been an outstanding Malvolio, a wonderful Toad in the National's Wind in the Willows, reduced theatres to blissful hysteria with his performance as both the Antipholus twins in The Comedy of Errors. So what has brought him back to panto, at the Norwich Theatre Royal? He has turned down a lot of big parts, including Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar, to play Dame Trott. "Well," says Barrit, a 22-stone Welshman who spent his early years as accountant before beginning an acting career in his -thirties, "pantomime pays very well.

Where there's sequins there's money, and this show is going to keep me in McDonalds for a very long He says eight weeks as Dame Trott will earn him the equivalent of a year's salary with the RSC. But it quickly becomes clear that it isn't filthy lucre alone that has drawn him back to panto. "Pantomime is so British. And it's a part of the theatre that hardly exists more. You don't get glamour and comedy like this in many other areas.

People want a few and some glitter and some Most the musicals feathers, in the West End now are So depressing that you see them and want to slash your wrists. You don't come out giggling used The giggle count at Jack and the Beanstalk is likely to be high. Barrit treated me to a sneak preview of some of his routines and were a joy. The mind boggles, particularly at the idea of him performing a striptease in a 14in beehive wig. The script, to which Barrit has contributed, contains more terrible jokes than seems humanly possible, including one or two that are likely to have children asking awkward questions on the way home.

coq the au vin?" slapstick asks kitchen Simple scene. "Something you have in the back of a replies Dame Trott). But for the most part innocence prevails. PI Barrit says he gets "terribly annoyed" with uppity young actors straight out of drama school who sneer at panto in the mistaken belief that anyone can do do it. 'Anyone can't It is as specialised as playing Hamlet or singing in Martin Guerre.

Unequivocally, it is the hardest thing you will ever be asked to do as an actor. You've got 1,500 screaming kids to compete with for a start." He believes the key to success in pantomime is sincerity. "It may all be very cardboard cut-out, but within that it's possible to be moving. When I'm supposed to be selling the cow, it should be a moment tosS before genuine now pathos. and been I've in sat in tears." panThere are two extremes of Great British Dame: the beery, hairylegged raucous type best played in my experience by the muchmissed Les Dawson and the camp, glamorous dame of the kind offered by Danny La Rue and John Inman.

What sort of dame is Des? "I'm somewhere in between, I Dawson I don't suppose, towards the Les veering, actually seeing flesh on a dame, there's something quite obscene about hairy legs and fleshy arms sticking out of a sequined frock. I like most of me to be covered. The only time I try to look glamorous is right at the end and it's a bit nerveracking. You do feel a bit like queen and all the nastier elements that go with that. daTive known, they've some cared pantomime about is whether their stockings are French silk and their knickers are from I don't get turned on by that sort of stuff at all.

It's just a A shattering achievement IT IS hard to believe that this painful, passionate play was written when Ibsen was 66. Nowadays we think of him as an intimidating moralist, all whiskers and gloom, but there is a recklessness, a sense of pushing art to its limits in Little Eyolf, which remains shocking even in our own unshockable age. The play often seems to anticipate the subsequent discoveries of psychoanalysis, while its portrait of a desperate marriage puts one in mind of the cruel intensity of Strindberg and even Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It is an exceptionally tough piece to pull off, and in the only previous production I have seen it appeared almost risible. Ibsen trundles on portentous symbols all the delicacy of a removal man lugging a piano upstairs. When the sinister old ratcatcher arrives a and insinuatingly inquires whether the Allmers household has "any troublesome thing that gnaws here in this Little Eyolf Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Theatre we know that Ibsen isn't just referring to rodents but to buried guilt and nagging remorse.

With great daring for a play written in 1894, Ibsen lays bare the secret sexual life of his characters. Alfred Allmers, a failed writer, is impotent. His wife, Rita, is sexually voracious. Like a gruelling session on the psychiatrist's couch, the cause of this trauma is laid bare. The couple were make ing love, when their baby fell off a table and was badly or crippled.

More daringly still, it is gradually revealed that Allmers also nurtures a nearincestuous love for his halfsister, Asta; a love which she ardently reciprocates. These, as Holmes might have observed, are dark waters, Watson. Noble's production has a raw anguish from which one physically flinches. As in his superb The Cherry Orchard, now in the West End, there is never a moment when the emotion rings false, a remarkable achievement in a play as tormented as this. The catastrophe occurs at the end of Act 1, when the nine-year-old son is drowned.

This is all the more shocking because only moments before, the boy's mother has come within an ace of saying she wishes him dead, frantically jealous of the way her damaged child separates her from her husband. The rest of the play takes place in a mood of stunned grief and reckless truth-telling. There are some brilliantly illuminating moments in Noble's consistently gripping staging, sparely designed by Rob Howell. In Act 1, Joanne Pearce's marvellous Rita reaches tenderly to embrace her husband, only for Robert Glenister to jump back like a man threatened by murderous assault. In Act 2 his half-sister presents him with a bunch of bedraggled water-lilies, and MADONNA DON'T CRYFOR ME ARGENTINA EVITA The Wonderful New Single ARTS the pantomime mood.

Does he like children? 'Yes, boiled' You get the impression that Barrit Sometimes after Christmas you was as nifty an accountant as he is may think oh no, not again, but an actor. "They've measured me and gasped, it's great to have someone else doing it," he said. He looked a happy man as he stripped to his undies and tried on yet another over -top outfit, camping it up outrageously for the photographer. "I tell you it's great for your health to be in a panto and have people laughing with you. REVIEWS CHRISTMAS SHOWS TRADITIONAL pantomimes are in no danger of disappearing without trace just yet, unlike some of their stars.

But this year the standard "nudge nudge, wink wink" Christmas riots are strongly challenged by a group of safer, more sophisticated family shows. Here's a sample of what's on offer over Christmas: The Champion of Paribanou during its UK tour. This welcome and Prepare to feign somewhat unusual amazement as boys and departure from Alan witches are turned into Ayckbourn received its mice. world when it Until Jan 18 at the opened at the end of Vaudeville Theatre, WC2 November in Scarborough. (tel 0171 836 9987) Conceived by Ayckbourn after reading Arabian Beauty and the Beast The Young Vic Theatre Nights last Christmas, it blend the Company present an interesting new version of attempts to magic of Sinbad with the the tale.

futuristic elements of Star a fairy More serious piece of children's Wars. theatre than your usual Until Jan 4 at the Stephen "Oh no you're "Oh Joseph Theatre, I am" Christmas yes riot, Scarborough (tel 01723 but the enjoyable none 370541) less. Until Feb 1 at the Snow White and the Seven Young Vic, SEI (tel 0171 Dwarfs One really has to 928 6363) pity Lisa Kay, who plays Snow White. She is Mother Goose Part of the making her professional eighth Cadbury Pantomime stage alongside Mr Season in association with Blobby enough to force Save the Children, this anyone into early stars Matthew Kelly, retirement. Lionel Blair, Suzanne Dando and Drop John Inman and Britt the Dead Donkey's Robert Ekland are on hand for Duncan.

It will be, I dare moral support. say, an eggstremely silly From tonight to Feb 9 at affair. Until Feb 15 at the Mayflower Theatre, Hippodrome Theatre, Southampton (tel 01703 Birmingham (tel 0121 622 711811) 7486) Oedipus the Pantomine Robin Hood the Babes in Despite being the most the Wood Paul Nicholas intimate family tale of all plays Robin in a script time, this is clearly one to written, directed by and coavoid with the kids or starring Tudor Davies. the parents for that Until Jan 26 at the matter. However, if you Wimbledon Theatre (tel fancy yelling, "He's in 0181 540 0362) front to blind old Oedipus, it's worth going Cinderella Physical theatre along to the self-styled rarely gets more physical than Rod Hull and Emu "least tragic pantomime in just ask Michael Until Jan 12 at Pleasance Parkinson, once famously London, N7 (tel 0171 609 savaged uncontrollable by the 1800) bird.

They are joined for this Peter Pan Earlier this year traditional panto by Stu Matthew Warchus's Francis and Neighbours acclaimed adaptation of star Kim Valentine. the Barrie classic Until Jan 5 at the North caused a toddler to dive Wales Theatre, Llandudno under his seat, then bury (tel 01492 872 000) his face in his father's lap before finally wailing "Get The Wizard of Oz No stars, me out!" Highly no jokes, just a simple but recommended, all the enchanting interpretation same but not for under- of the 1939 musical film. sevens. Restless children are Until Jan 18 at West invited to join the cast for a Yorkshire Playhouse, rousing chorus of We're Off 0113 244 2111) to See the Wizard. Until Jan 18 at Citizens' The Witches David Wood's lavish stage version of Theatre, Glasgow (tel 0141 Roald Dahl's children's 429 0022) story stops off in London for the Christmas season GEORGE THWAITES Desmond Barrit swings into Until talking to Des, I hadn't realised that most dames supply their and often make them themselves.

Barrit did in his early years, and has a storeroom of them in London. Unfortunately, he has put on too much weight to fit into most of them. So he has reached a deal with the Norwich Theatre Royal. He bought all the fabrics, they're making up the costumes and he gets to keep them. Picture: ALASTAIR MUIR Russian Nutcracker is a little too sweet THE KIROV are back in London, and once again that old thrill rises the hope of a purity and sparkle of ballet the Russian way.

When here 18 months ago, with Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, they brought touches of romantic inspiration to these masterworks, reminding us that they are dance poems rather than dramas, as we here tend to treat them. The Nutcracker, though, is not a dance poem. It is more of a magic show or fantastical pantomime and I wish I could feel more grateful that at last the Kirov have shown us their venerable production. But dispirited dancing, candy-floss designs and a leaden production made the opening night an underwhelming occasion. I read recently that Russian designers see green fir trees and white snow as deeply (they do, after all, have of that in Russia) hence pink, coral, orange and lilac for preference.

Some of Simon Virsaladze's costumes are elegant once you get on there and the kids are screaming and eating sweets and going to the lavatory every two minutes, it's great. It does you as much good as the audience." Jack and the Beanstalk', starring Desmond Barrit, Toyah Wilcox, Karl Howman Curry, is at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, from tomorrow until Jan 25. Tickets: 01603 630000. The Coliseum in line, but those bubble-gum drapes, those geranium conifers, those carroty Theatrically, too, prowigs. duction tells the story at halfcock without the stage effects to save it.

There is the merest trace of a link between the child Masha (whom, in British productions, we call Clara) dream of being a grown-up Princess, we are cheated of a transforming Christmas tree by a clumsy extra interval, and the battle of the rats is feeble and this one of the greatest sections of a stupendous score. At least there's plenty of dancing, you might say. There is, and welcome too, because often The Nutcracker is an excuse not to dance much at all, and Vasily Vainonen's 1934 choreography is extremely difficult, especially for the Snowflakes. But Petipa, Ivanov, Ashton taught us that dance can be 126 A REGENT STREET ROYAL WORCESTER LONDON Spooc winter Royal Worcester Spode Starts 126 Regent Street, London Friday Tel: 0171 734 7704 27th Dec Fax: 0171 734 7705 Also Edinburgh Crystal and Arthur Price of England luscious and convey a flow of images that advances the story. Too often Vainonen's choreography is tricky and brittle without soaring into the music.

Masha's climactic dance with the Prince looks like a diva's competition number, ecstasy the last thing on her mind. A shame, when the music was painted with rare colours by the conductor, Boris Gruzin, despite some alarming fluctuations in tempo between pit and stage. As "big" Masha, Diana Vishneva, the hot new girl from St Petersburg, showed us a vivid face and a curly, floaty body which one love to see in a meatier part. Petr Stassiouna's was a charmingly, daffy Drosselemeyer. But what has happened to Farouk Ruzimatov, the longlocked barbarian hunk Kirov? The world's sexiest dancer, as was, has cut his hair off, unflatteringly, and in Prince's all-white strip rather than bare-chested and oiled, he looked as grumpy as a Grundy.

Tickets: 0171 632 8300 ISMENE BROWN Fine performances: Pearce and Glenister he holds them in his arms like the child he has just lost. At the end, the action is agonisingly frozen as Rita reaches for husband's hand and he stares blankly, blindly, unresponsively ahead. Pearce's performance is one of the finest of the year. She combines sensuality with racked neuroticism, unconditional love with appalling selfishness. At times her desperate face seems to be in perpetual spasm, and in the great, drained last act, her smudged and haunted eyes seem to have gazed for far too long at the unendurable.

Glenister is almost as fine as Allmers, fiercely capturing the baffled incomprehension and terrifying mood swings of those confronted with inexplicable tragedy, while Derbhla Crotty beautifully captures the mixture of tenderness and terror with which Asta to the illicit promptings of her heart. My only cavil is that this short play would achieve an even greater impact if it weren't interrupted by two intervals. It remains a shattering achievement, though, intense, turbulent and deeply moving. Tickets: 01789 295623 CHARLES SPENCER Telegraph Books Direct The Daily Telegraph SECOND BOOK OF OBITUARIES Heroes and Adventurers Edited by Hugh Massingberd £15.99 (plus 1.50 UK, £3 overseas) TO ORDER THIS AND ANY OTHER TITLE CALL 01908 566366 or send a cheque to Telegraph Books Direct, Deanshanger, Milton Keynes MILLS SHO fax 01.908 261888 email Any book around the clock Allow 21 days for delivery in the UK and Europe, up to 50 days overseas. If you do not wish to receive offers BOOKS from other companies carefully selected by the Telegraph, please mark the top of your letter with a cross DIRECT.