Scouse Red Riding Hood
Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool

MOST of us are familiar with Little Red Riding Hood, a fundamental piece of European children’s literature, and her encounter with a sly wolf. 

As the curtains lift at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre, we discover our Scouse Red Riding Hood delivering a pan of cooked scouse and a loaf of bread to her nan who is bedridden with sciatica. It will soon be the first full moon of the year, a wolf moon. 

Based in “Lidlpool,” taking a short cut through the trees, Little Red encounters two people, Cash and Carry, the wealthiest property developers in the whole of Lidlpool, who are on their way to grandma Riding Hood intent on making her move out of her cottage, which will enable them to redevelop the land into a car park, thus adding even more to their existing fortune. 

In order to achieve this, they clearly intend to use both fair means and foul, but as the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that grand daughter Little Red (LFC colours) and her mate Big Blue (Everton FC colours) will not standby and let it happen. 

Cash and Carry, big bad wolves themselves who wear not sheep’s clothing but posh suits, want to spread the false idea that the upcoming wolf moon will turn people into werewolves. Therefore they all should move well away from the woods, leaving the neighbourhood unoccupied. 

To counter this, Little Red and Big Blue fly by rocket to the moon, intent on painting over the brighter side and neutralising its image. Meanwhile on Earth, our two bad human wolves have whacked Grandma over the head with a frying pan, tricked her into taking prescription medicine that was supposed to be poison, but instead makes her hyperactive!

There’s wonderful live music and song throughout the whole show, performed by a brilliant five-piece band, and the main characters themselves who have superb singing voices.

Cash and Carry both return to the stage wearing “official” tags that they declare gives them the authority to evict Grandma. Little Red won’t have any of it. At the end of the show, the wolf moon has lost all its power and light and Little Red urges us to carry on with the festive fight. In Lidlpool there’s no such thing as the political centre! 

From start to finish, this show is packed with cheeky jokes, live music, fabulous songs and festive silliness. This is a Scouse-themed panto for adults, full of contemporary innuendo that had me laughing from start to finish. Enjoy the festive fun. Highly recommended. Time to bring Red out from under the bed! 

Runs until January 25 2025. Box office: (0151) 709-4321, liverpoolsroyalcourt.com.