‘A great alternative to the usual pantomimes’

Magic beans and giant shoes are to the fore in Jack and the Beanstalk, directed and designed by Marcello Chiarenza and featuring company founder and artistic director, Cbeebies presenter Patrick Lynch from December 23 to 31.

Patrick will also be appearing in the company’s other show at the Capitol this Christmas, Lyngo Theatre’s Snow Play from December 10 to 21.

“The shows don’t necessarily fit together,” says Patrick, “but they are both for Christmas. Both pieces are for the younger age group that The Capitol is wanting to cater for, offering the shows as an adjunct to the main panto.

“Our two shows are very different. Snow Play is all about snow, as you might expect. It is a very interactive show. You get to have a snowball fight, and there is a snowman to make or to help make. Some of the audience will get to go up on stage. Jack and the Beanstalk is much more your classic story.”

Except, this is a one-man Jack and the Beanstalk.

“We are very excited about this new show. It’s got all the elements you need for a great story – and we’ve made some brilliant props in order to tell it. We’ve got something for everyone: stunning visuals, hilarious physical theatre and a gripping storyline. We made the show with the help of Trestle Theatre in St Albans in November 2013 and have performed it more than 100 times since then in theatres all over the country. We’ve had some great reactions along the way so we hope that everyone comes along to follow the amazing adventures of Jack the giant slayer and see our showers of silver and gold, our flying ice-cream and our huge leafy explosion!”

As for their other show in Horsham: “We first did Snow Play in 2011 with the Lyric, Hammersmith, in London, and it has been our most successful show certainly in terms of performances. We have done more than 500, and every Christmas actually, we do more than one, this Christmas included.

“While we are at the Capitol, we are going to have another version of Snow Play playing at the Gulbenkian in Canterbury. The show has been so popular we have had to spread it out from 2012 onwards. We have had another team doing it somewhere else.”

In Snow Play, Winter, in the form of Mr White (Carlo Rossi), refuses to leave when Mr Green (Patrick), representing Spring, arrives back home from his holidays. The audience joins in, on and off-stage, with the struggle between the two, making a giant snowman, having a real snowball fight and finally bringing back the flowers and butterflies.

“We are a great alternative to the usual pantomimes this Christmas,” says Patrick. “Snow Play delivers all you expect from a Christmas show without the sing-alongs and the gaudy Dames. With us it’s good old-fashioned non-stop snow-filled slap-stick heart-warming ultra-hyphenated entertainment from start to finish. And you even get to have a real snowball fight!”

Patrick has presented programmes on Cbeebies and is well known for programmes including Razzle Dazzle and Let’s Celebrate!

In Snow Play he is joined by Carlo who appeared on children’s television in Italy for over a decade in L’albero Azzuro on Rai, the main state-run channel.

The rest of the company is also Italian – the director Marcello Chiarenza and the composer Cialdo Capelli – both award winners in Europe.

Lyngo have performed all over the world, most recently in New York and Singapore, and are regular visitors to venues like the Unicorn, the Polka and the Lyric Hammersmith.

Tickets from www.the
capitolhorsham.com or 01403 750220.