Beanstalk panto is fun

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The perfect show to re-launch the York Theatre. The Cultch’s newest performance space opened with Jack & the Beanstalk: An East Van Panto last week. The musical evoked the era in which the theatre was originally built – not to mention near-constant laughter.

Recommended for ages 5 and up, Jack & the Beanstalk had plenty of silly stuff for the kids, but more than enough fodder to keep the adults engaged. With panto being explained as being short for pantomine, East Van was described as short for “really frickin’ good time,” and the well-known fairy tale re-invented by writer Charles Demers, with music by Veda Hille, provided a unique, socially conscious, Vancouver-specific “frickin’ good time.”

There is a lot going on in this play, with actors Allan Zinyk, Dawn Petten, Patti Allan and Raugi Yu all playing more than one role, the action taking place both on stage and in the audience, as well as in two “windows” higher up on each side of the stage. Add dialogue, music, props and many a costume change, and director Amiel Gladstone should be commended. Same for the rest of the creative team, the artists behind the sets (beautiful!), costumes (weird and hilarious) and “special effects” (Jack really does climb that beanstalk ... well, a small painted cardboard facsimile of “him” does), and everyone else who had a hand in putting on this production.

While the story of Jack and the beanstalk holds the musical together, so many moments/scenes/songs seem so refreshingly random, as do the costumes and the character interpretations. Witty one-liners are scattered with pleasing regularity throughout the script – lines like “This is Vancouver: dreams are grown in the basement” (where the magic beans are tossed and start to grow with the aid of a magic lamp) and adaptations of songs like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to “Somewhere West of Cambie” (where there’s a house with rhododendrons that Jack might one day be able to afford ... not) make everyone feel in on the joke. The interaction with the audience adds to the old-timey, when-community-meant-something feel.

This is also why it suits the re-created York, which first opened in 1912, though the York moniker only came in 1940. It lasted some 40-plus years, until the space – intended to be demolished in 1981 – became a music venue by the name of the New York Theatre in the late ’80s, closed for a few years in the early ’90s, reopened and operated as the Raja movie theatre for about a decade and then closed again.

Saved by Wall Financial Corp. and the Cultch, with help from the City of Vancouver, the York Theatre at 639 Commercial Dr. – which really only preserves the Art Deco façade above the entrance doors – is a beautiful, modern space, notwithstanding its almost nonexistent lobby. Luckily, the staff was adept at directing traffic through the few-foot corridor between the concession and its line-up, which people have to travel in order to access the upper level, where there’s a balcony and, surprisingly, lots of stalls in at least the women’s washroom.

Jack & the Beanstalk would be well worth seeing no matter where it was playing; that it is taking place in such an historic theatre is icing on the cake. Jack & the Beanstalk runs until Dec. 29, with 2 and 7 p.m. shows on various days and several featuring a post-show talkback. For the full schedule and tickets, visit thecultch.com/events/east-van-panto or call 604-251-1363.

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