Interview: Abigail Anderson on Dick Whittingberg Gets Into a Pickle

Abigail Anderson directs Dick Whittingberg Gets Into a Pickle at JW3, the fourth in the venue’s annual Jewish pantomime, following Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig, Goldie Frocks and the Bear Mitzvah and Cinderella and the Matzo Ball. Nick Cassenbaum writes and Josh Middleton is musical director. Young Dick travels to 18th century London by boat to make his name, and soon finds himself in one pickle after another, with a mischievous talking cat, a villainous rat and a diamond heist in Ratton Garden. Aveev Isaacson plays Dick, and Debbie Chazen returns to the JW3 stage as Sarah Fritz.

Red Bus Londinium asked Abigail about her long love of panto, keeping an immigrant story honest inside the silliness, working alongside a klezmer band on stage, and what Shakespeare and pantomime have in common.

Red Bus: You first directed panto in 2009 and have hardly missed a year since, and this is your fourth with the JW3 team. What keeps you coming back to the form, and what has JW3 taught you that other pantos didn’t?

Abigail Anderson: What keeps me coming back to panto is the sheer joy it generates in the audiences, time after time after time. No two shows are ever the same because the audience are an extra character, making different offers every time, so you never get bored no matter how many times you watch it, or however many you direct. Working on a Jewish panto for JW3 has really proved to me how flexible and absorbent the panto form is. You can use the archetypes, routines and traditions and open them up in new ways by taking a different perspective, and it will still work to delight people in just the same way. It’s brought me such satisfaction over the last four years to find what a natural fit pantomime traditions are with Jewish culture. For example, throwing sweets for the audience in panto worked beautifully for Goldifrocks and the Bear Mitzvah, where the tradition is to throw sweets at the end of the ceremony.

Red Bus: Nick Cassenbaum has said that Dick arrives in London the way many Jewish and non-Jewish immigrant families did, facing similar obstacles, but that it is still a pantomime. How do you keep that story honest without losing the laughs?

Abigail Anderson: The more invested we are in the characters and their story, the bigger the laughs. We want the audience to experience a roller coaster of emotions along with the characters, and to recognise themselves and the contemporary world, even inside this colourful, fantastical context. Pantomime is, at heart, a very moral form where the good end happily and the bad unhappily.

Red Bus: There is a live band on stage playing klezmer versions of familiar songs. How does having the musicians in view change the way you stage a scene, or get a room of families singing along?

Abigail Anderson: Well, we have to be very careful not to bump into anyone while they’re playing, that’s genuinely dangerous! But seriously, it is such a privilege to have live music, it’s imperative that the audience can see them at work. It’s also fun to have the characters be able to interact with the band and comment on the music. Pantomimes have an enormous amount of music in them, not just the songs. Underscore is used for storytelling throughout, rather like a film, and the percussionist is kept busy punctuating comedic action with all manner of cymbals, wood blocks and duck quacks. Also, every character has a musical motif, called a sting, for when they enter or exit. Having the musicians visible certainly makes it easier to get everyone warmed up for singing together, but there is audience participation throughout so there’s no hiding from it.

Red Bus: You have directed 18 Shakespeare plays as well as all this silliness. Does one help the other, and do the skills carry across more than people might expect?

Abigail Anderson: Both Shakespeare’s plays and pantomimes do not have any concept of a “fourth wall” between actors and audience, and the activeness of a pantomime audience, the extent to which they feel included and sometimes take things into their own hands, is a really useful reminder to keep sharing the action and thoughts of characters with them when performing Shakespeare. The other important technique to master for both is maintaining pace and rhythm. There’s no pauses in either form, just non-stop action, and the mood or emotion can switch in a moment, totally truthfully.

Red Bus: You’ve said your sons are your ideal audience. What makes them laugh, and what would you say to a family who has never been to JW3 or seen a Jewish panto and isn’t sure it’s for them?

Abigail Anderson: My sons are both suckers for slapstick comedy, and toilet humour, which I think is something they share with a large number of children, and adults. Safe to say there’s plenty of both in our pantomimes! The JW3 panto is a genuinely excellent panto, with all the traditional elements of humour, colour, anarchy, escapism and genuine warmth that you would wish to see. It is written for a very specific community, the Jewish community within the M25, but it tells universal stories and is thoroughly enjoyable whatever background you come from. My sons’ school friends and their families are now all regulars and they hail from a wide range of world cultures and religions. Everyone is made welcome in our world of Jewish joy!

Booking details

Show: Dick Whittingberg Gets Into a Pickle
Venue: JW3, 341 to 351 Finchley Road, London NW3 6ET
Dates: Sunday 6 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027
Price: £27 or £32 per adult, £17 or £20 per child. Child tickets are for under 16s, and under 2s do not need a ticket.
Book tickets: https://www.jw3.org.uk/whats-on/dick-whittingberg-gets-into-a-pickle-rsn7

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