My First Panto: Little Red Riding Hood – Kings Lynn!

I’ve talked about the My First Theatre series produced by All In Productions a lot because they’re doing such great things in Norfolk for children’s theatre! They’ve literally changed the face of performance for children in our county and I’m a little bit jealous truth be told. Their ideas for immersive theatre for kids, where running about and joining in is welcomed, is something I’ve wanted to be a part of myself but never had the staying power to finish writing – though it’s hard to have sour grapes when they do it so well!

They have a few shows throughout the year finishing with their panto and the productions so far have been played at The Garage in Norwich where they currently have Rapunzel for the Christmas season (see my review here) and now, as a totally new venture with the Garage’s sister site in Kings Lynn, the newly opened The Workshop, they are also playing Little Red Riding Hood for panto 2019 until January 2020!

We’d seen LRR in Norwich the year before last where we had great fun (as always) and were invited along to review again for Kings Lynn. We loved it just as much and with some of the same cast it would be hard not to. The performances are so intimate you feel as if you know them and this venue, though tight on space (it was a bank only a few weeks ago) welcomes all in like a little family.

I just thought wow… I hope Kings Lynn know how lucky they are to have such a venue and long may performances like these have the space to create them.

Children are told the story of Little Red Riding Hood in all its traditional glory but with a slighly less gruesome edge and as the three actors welcome you into the fold of the tale, inviting singing and dancing and joining in, you’d be hard pushed not to enjoy it.

My big two think they’re too big for such performances and made a little fuss when I told them to join in yet they came away saying they loved it and would go again. My littlest one smiled the whole time and relished in being able to be a free two year old while the panto was in action. Draw on the walls, dance, laugh, sing… Anything goes at My First and they’ve got it just right!

We were invited to see the performance as guests of the theatre.