If you go down to the woods today….. You’ll find Panto legend May McFettridge & her 3 bears!

Oh no you won’t, Oh yes you will!

As has been with every panto for as long as I remember Belfasts answer to Mrs Brown (and in my opinion the original Mrs brown!) May stole the show with her ever wild and wacky costumes!

This panto is everything we have come to expect from The Grand Opera House, bright, bold, sequins galore with the perfect Belfast comedic timing from two Belfast panto legends May and Paddy Jenkins. No member of the audience was safe from May, ever the queen of innuendo and tongue in cheek humour, not even Stephen Nolan who got a bit of a ribbing much to the laughter of the adults in the audience. From start to finish the show was full of high energy dancers, jugglers, skaters and the key panto villain to boo and hiss in the shape of Countess Von Vinklebottom (Anne Smith).

The story is not the standard Goldilocks and the three bears story, but is set between 2 rival circuses one owned by our very own Dame McFetty and the other the cruel Countess Von Vinklebottom whose main mission is to capture the 3 Belfast Talking bears to be the new stars of her big top of cruelty. Add in a love interest between Joey the clown (Adam C Booth) and Goldilocks (Kia-Paris Walcott) and you have the makings of a fun family show.

Several personal highlights for me were:

● The alexa song conversation between May, Paddy and Joey using an alexa to describe the couples first date full of adult undertones that went over the younger members of the audiences blissfully unaware as to why their adults were in wrinkles.

● The “If I was not in pantomime song, watch out for that pan, bat, duster and water lol!

● And last but not least the 3 bears with full on Belfast accents and a tap dancing baby bear….what's not to love?

All in all an enjoyable family experience from start to finish but I would expect nothing less from the annual Grand Opera House panto. You can get your tickets from https://www.goh.co.uk/ the show runs until 9th January 2022.