Jack and the Beanstalk: Dog-whistle politics in innocent pantomime

Benjamin Clow as Jack and Chris McKenzie as his mother in Wanganui Repertory Theatre's production of Roger Hall's <i>Jack and the Beanstalk</i>. Photo / Supplied

Jack and the Beanstalk - directed by Colin Hedivan, music by Michael Nicholas Williams, lyrics by Paul Jenden, music directed by Marie Brooks.

Review by Aaron Potaka

Forget magic beans, a land of giants and consummated love.

Children in the audience will be familiar to some degree with the motifs of economic recession Mr Hall has crow-barred into the Jack and the Beanstalk story: child poverty, debt loading, asset sales, substance abuse, poor nutrition, inter-generational unemployment, financial illiteracy and socio-economic crime.

This story morphs into an alternative panto universe of a lazy, do-nothing, good-for-nothing, thieving, unemployed, young anti-hero on the WINZ benefit, and his rent-shirking mother getting lucky with a goose.

Benjamin Clow as the slacker Jack, and Chris McKenzie as his widowed mother (and with a quick change of hat and accent, market stallholder and vendor of magic beans, Aunty Pam) carry this play with vigour.

The interaction between them and the audience, the essence of pantomime, would have pleased director Colin Hedivan.

Speculative investor, the landlady Mrs Stilton (Hilary Cowan) and her repo-man Claude Back (Ronan Shaw) become the villains of the piece in the eyes of the audience, for demanding late rent.

Brie Parkinson plays blonde gold-digging Paris Stilton, daughter to the landlady, and is Jack's love interest (while a golden goose egg is hers).

Ted Charlton is the busiest actor with the roles of Butcher Bob, the immigration officer, and as the voice of the unseen giant.

Costuming by Linda Hardcastle accentuates the characters' standing in life – a mix-and-patch of rags and recycling for the (very) poor, bling and ostentation for the gentrified rich, and good sturdy shoes and working attire for the tradies.

Betsy the Cow (Ashlyn Morris) is the most fashionably dressed.

Overall, the play is a highly-charged polemic, but stirring musical knees-ups, including Pantomime Whirl giving dog-whistle politics some ground cover.

Jack and the Beanstalk: Repertory Theatre, Ridgway St, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, December 20-22, 6.30pm; Saturday, December 23, 1.30pm and 6.30pm. Adult $20, senior $18, student $15, child under 15 $10.