ALADDIN

Salisbury Playhouse

The pantomime factories are running fill tilt again, churning out a string of mass-produced seasonal sausages lavishly seasoned with your favourite soap opera or sitcom stars. At this time of year actors whose names are eternally suffixed with the title of one of television's currently hottest properties stagger - blinking slightly - into the floodlights to put their rusty theatre skills to the test. But if you were worried that the traditional pantomime had been relegated to the village hall then be cheered to know that in Salisbury there is one corner of the land which is still uncontaminated by the mediocrity of commercialism, where jobbing actors demonstrate their mastery of stagecraft without relying on cheap gimmicks and cheaper fame.

The Playhouse's Aladdin is traditional to the tips of its turned-up shoes. This is not a production that relies for its charm on lavish effects or topical trivialities. There is little here which would not have been equally familiar - and equally entertaining - to an audience a century ago. Yet some things (such as moonlight and love songs) are never out of date, and this truly traditional entertainment has the Playstation Generation on the edge of their seats and screaming with delight.

Composer Kate Edgar's tunes lean heavily on the musical styles of the past, particularly the musical's heyday of the twenties and thirties. Musically speaking, this Aladdin verges on becoming a Beansprout Salad Days, and is all the more appealing for it. Ms Edgar's experience on Return to the Forbidden Planet is also evidenced as she extends her temporal range to cull from the styles of the fifties and beyond to produce a programme of brand-new yet comfortingly familiar foot-tappers.

The cast also manage to lend a contemporary edge to the traditional characters. Rachel Matthews' Princess replaces the usual aspartame-flavoured principal girl, all drooping femininity and coy Panorama downward glances, with a tough cookie who's gagging for it. Dale Superville's blue romper-suited interpretation of the Genie of the Lamp crosses the frenetic india-rubber convolutions of Jim Carrey's Joker with the chaotic energy and diminutive stature of the Things in Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. Meanwhile, Simon Egerton sweeps all before his melodramatic cloak-sweeping as the baddiest baddy of them all, Abanazar. This is a refined and eminently hissable wizard with a strong feel of Laurence Olivier about him. However, this production's strength lies partly in the power of the ensemble. Another reviewer on another night could pick out three other actors and lavish equal praise on them.

Shining through Colin Wakefield's script and Kate Edgar's direction is an intelligence which has considered the child's-eye view, including enough gags aimed at the shortest trousered audience members to prevent their attention from wandering. There is constant interaction across the footlights, and an ample smattering of well-managed and eagerly contributed audience participation. It takes a slightly ironic sense of humour to make one of the biggest audience shout-outs the word 'Mummy'; oh how they can bellow that!

The final test of any pantomime is its ability to appeal to the enormous age range which its audience will contain. From engrossed four year olds through cheering teenagers to smiling adults, Salisbury Playhouse's Aladdin appears to entertain and enrapture everyone. It's rare that any production genuinely deserves the title of 'a show for all the family'. But this is one.

TOBY O'CONNOR MORSE