Aladdin Trouble (Staite)

Meanwhile, Grabanazer, our villain, accompanied by Pong Gong Wong, the smelly genie, have travelled to another town where Grabanazer has heard that a boy called Aladdin has a magic lamp. Grabanazer tries his new lamps for old trick and a customer inadvertently lets Pong Gong Wong out of the lamp again, the resulting smell clearing the street.  Aladdin enters and confesses he is in love with Princess Jasmin, but her parents don’t approve.  Two comic policemen Bobby and Socks are intent upon arresting Aladdin for any misdemeanour they can think of. When Grabanazer finds that Aladdin won’t give him the lamp, he tries to get him framed for robbery. After Pong Gong Wong messes up a couple of times, Aladdin is eventually framed. Bobby and Socks are told by the sultan to arrest Aladdin. Aladdin runs away and is told to run to Ali Baba’s shop where Ali and Selina will help him.

In Act 2 we are back in Ali Baba’s café where everyone is excitedly getting ready for a visit from the sultan and sultana. Humpthree is still missing and a poster advertises the fact. (Humpthree puts his head through the poster every now and then, to shouts from the children in the audience, but Ali tells them it is just a poster.)

Aladdin arrives at the café and asks for help, just as the sultan is about to arrive, so Selina disguises him as a waitress. Jasmin recognises him and keeps quiet, but when the sultana recognises him, she calls on Bobby and Socks to arrest him. Ali and Selina help Aladdin get away, and others run after him.  While the café is quiet, Grabanazer enters. He now has Aladdin’s lamp and wants to return Pong Gong Wong’s lamp to the café. His new genie appears, when he rubs the lamp but Pong Gong Wong objects and quarrels with the new genie.

In the end Pong Gong Wong confesses his part in the crime. Grabanazer gets three wishes, but wastes them and is driven off by Selina and Ali. Aladdin is rewarded and gets engaged to Princess Jasmin, and Humpthree reappears with a lady friend.

This pantomime is easily staged, (despite the complex plot), on three simple sets. Ali’s town can be altered to become Aladdin’s town and the set reversed for Ali Baba’s café. It is fast moving, and full of fun and audience participation.