Cinderella: The Panto/Robin Hood and Babes in the Wood at the Black Box Theatre/Town Hall Theatre, Galway
Pantomime has come a long, long way since our primitive relatives applied it as a silent theatrical form. Drawing from French/Italian commedia dell'arte and ballets-pantomime, defined by the antics of Grimaldi and adopted as traditional British slapstick, it has left much of that behind in 21st-century Ireland.
What would the late Gaiety master, Maureen Potter, have made of so many budding candidates for You're a Star? It isn't all young women on the Westlife trail, although one has to pinch oneself at times during both productions currently running in Galway.
Confirmation of the choice caused a bit of a stir before Christmas, given the loyal following established by Renmore Pantomime Society since its first production in 1979.
Proving there's nothing quite like competition, Renmore twins Brian and Sean Power have risen admirably to the challenge posed by veteran comedy scriptwriter Maeve Ingoldsby and Lara Campbell, producer and director of the Performing Arts Academy's first pantomime, Cinderella.
Renmore's not-so-secret weapons have been the teeny tiny Smurfs, and Belfastman Peter Kennedy - scriptwriter and the buxom, bossy Nurse Nappy on stage. Together with James Harris's Simple Simon, Kennedy rattles out gags a-pace, with neat digs at Mayomen, clampers and other local social "ills".
Nottingham sheriff and badman Sean Hosty clearly relishes the hiss and boo, while Robin Hood (Alan Greaney), Will Scarlett (Mike Keane) and company have merry digs at men in tights, and the sheriff's henchmen, Claude White (Shane Lennon), Clem Yolk (Tracey Dooley), and hound Wiggles (Agnieszka Jablonska), provide much hilarious distraction.
Misogynists will take equal delight in the antics of Salmonella (Demian Fox) and Barbarella (Alan Connelly), the ugly siblings of Cinderella, played by fifth-year school student Caoimhe McClafferty. No mercy here for the state of Eyre Square (in the hands of Send in Another Consultant or SIAC, they tell us), Irish Ferries and the Taoiseach/Tánaiste two-step.
Ingoldsby's ingenious script skips along under Campbell's direction in the hands of Buttons, played by the highly energetic Niall McDonagh.
Dara McGee's set is pure Galway, complete with McDonagh's chipper and Tigh Neachtain, and watch out for the ugly dames' boudoir, also known as the "blisters body shop", complete with electric saw. The decisive verdict of younger companions? Book for both,if you can.
• Cinderella runs at the Black Box until Jan 8; Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood runs at the Town Hall Theatre until Jan 14
