Get Santa

We were invited to the Royal Court to see the seasonal show "GET SANTA."  I took my fairly jaded 9 year old son who reads Dickens and was fresh from Dick Whittington the night before. 10 year old Holly -played perfectly by Imogen Doel, who is straight out of drama school - lives with her mother and  step father who just happens to be a  dog named Bernard. Her real Dad turns out to be a cat! Holly doesn't like Christmas and doesn't want presents, all she wants is to find her real father and she thinks that if she traps Santa he will be able to tell her where her father lives, her reasoning being that he knows where everyone lives. My son loved the teddy who turns out to be a malicious, desperate teddy with a Russian accent, who accidently comes to life, when Santa's son Bumblehole turns up at Holly's house. He claims to be Holly's father, stuck forever as a teddy after a witch cast a spell on him. There follows a strange plot twist where Teddy realizes that if they trap the real Santa they could use strands of his magic beard to keep him alive for ever. What teddy doesn't realize is that the spell will only last one day, Christmas Day, and so we see Christmas Day turning up again and again, the adults becoming more and more weary, "I suppose we better open the presents again - Bernard takes to wearing all the hats he's received one on top of another. Of course it's all resolved in the end, without becoming sentimental. We both came away feeling more festive than when we had arrived. Great fun, quirky and original -  perfect antidote to the normal Christmas pantomime.  For ages 7+