An
edited version of this piece was published on artsHub.
First produced in 2003 by
Melbourne’s Playbox theatre company (now Malthouse), Tom
Wright’s Babes in the
Wood was a twenty-first century take on the colonial pantomime
tradition, spiralling out of control into a hallucinogenic cornucopia of
disreputability. Now, thirteen years later, Don’t
Look Away – the company responsible for Inner
Voices and The
Legend of King O’Malley – have returned to the woods of the Old Fitz, and have brought us
something approximating a sequel but also a more contemporary reinterpretation
of the panto tradition and an interrogation of the milieu from which the
Australian pantomime tradition sprang in the nineteenth century, as well as our
own 2016 context. And even though it might look like it’s raided a Christmas
warehouse for its set in the best possible way imaginable, it still packs a
satirical punch and leaves you doubled over in laughter, appropriately heckling
the performers and throwing cabbage. What’s not to love?
