Take a trip down into the centre of Bristol this Christmas season, and you’ll find Cinderella losing her glass slipper at the Hippodrome, and Alice falling into Wonderland at the Old Vic.  However, venture over to the Redgrave Theatre in Clifton, and not only will you find good old Cinders, the Queen of Hearts, Peter Pan and friends, but you’ll also catch a dysfunctional 21^st century family and the entire Arthurian court!  Sound confusing?  Not in John Hartoch’s charming original Christmas entertainment, The Knight Before Christmas, which he also directs for the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

 Something is wrong in Camelot when the Christmas Rose fails to bloom, and the Spirit of Christmas (quite literally) loses his head.  A prediction in Merlin’s spell book warns of disaster as the endings of popular stories keep disappearing, and the future of Christmas is threatened.  It’s therefore up to Gawain to travel through time and fiction to find out what’s going on and save the day.  As well as incorporating a host of familiar fairy stories, Hartoch also weaves in a monster, Chelspek, with a penchant for spoonerisms, a grandmother who stores fairy tales in her basement and who’s a dab hand at karate, and a quarrelling, cynical modern family.  And while this magi-mix of elements may at times seem arbitrary and inconsequential, Hartoch and his charismatic young cast endow them with wit and originality and a flavour for both musical theatre and pantomime: Cinderella’s two step sisters’ duet ‘Lies’ is especially amusing, as is the moment in which the audience is asked to scare Captain Hook by pretending to be a clock.

 Yet, The Knight Before Christmas never descends to the level of mere children’s entertainment, with topical gags making the occasional appearance, and a script which neither bores the young or patronises the old.  This may be one of the show’s most redeeming features, but as both writer and director, Hartoch seems blind to the many longeurs in his mostly sophisticated script, with some scenes suffering from their lengthy wordiness or tiresome plot exposition. Alongside the dialogue, the odd uncredited song makes an appearance, and though Hartoch’s lyrics are hardly Sondheim (‘Don’t mess with Morgana/She could corrupt the Dali Lama’), they sit quirkily and wittily on the often lame, twee music.

 For all these faults, this production is blessed with a committed cast brimming with energy and warmth, often doubling or tripling characters most convincingly on Penny Fitt’s wonderful sets, which endlessly spring forth as many surprises as the plot.  In particular, Amelia Bamford shines as the tongue-twisted Chelspek, innocent Cinderella and grotesque turkey stuffing mother, and Paul Mundell is a loveable, heroic Gawain to lead us through his adventures.

 In one song, a character declares, ‘The time for words is past!’  If Hartoch had listened to his own lyrics, then this show might have been the perfect Christmas treat; the production undoubtedly suffers from the lack of editing.  As it stands however, it nevertheless comes highly recommended.  Despite its flaws, The Knight Before Christmas is a delightful, fun, imaginative evening of festive theatre, blessed with more brains and wit than the average panto, and certainly worth a visit from all the family, whatever age.

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