Take a venerable Greek myth, strip it back to its essence… then do it as a panto.  Well, why not?  Writer Robbie Carnegie’s idiosyncratic take on the legend of the Minotaur won’t score any points for classical accuracy, but it rates highly for both freewheeling humour and terrible puns.  If you’re willing to get into the spirit and play along, it’s an upbeat and entertaining way to start a day at the Fringe.

Carnegie’s kid-friendly script dispenses with the gorier elements of the original legend, giving the story an easy-to-grasp contemporary spin.  In this alternative version, wicked King Minos is cast as a heartless landlord; Theseus’ mum has failed to pay the rent, and the two of them travel to Knossos to protest about their eviction.  Ariadne, Minos’s daughter, is a stroppy teenager who so hates her dad, and the Minotaur is… well, that would be telling.  Throw into the mix a pair of bailiffs called Tellos and Astori (geddit? don’t worry, it took me a while), and the stage is set for an irreverent canter through the labyrinth and beyond.

The mandatory panto elements are all there: the call and response, the anachronistic local references, the innocent but shameless innuendo.  (One particular line, involving ghosts, has to rate as the funniest double entendre I’ve heard in years.)  Audience participation is, of course, the key to it all, and actor Maria Carnegie is particularly effective at geeing up the crowd.  But at times, we could have done with a little more direction – an obvious it’s-behind-you moment ended in some confusion, because we weren’t quite primed to be ready with the iconic line.

The acting – of course! – tends to gusto more than subtlety, but the whole cast commit wholeheartedly to their roles and develop a genuine rapport with their audience.  Playing Theseus, the aforementioned Carnegie drives the plot forward with thigh-slapping energy, while Peter Stubbington is on fine lascivious form as the inevitable pantomime dame.  Stubbington also doubles as a delightfully evil Minos, and some of the funniest dialogue emerges from his continual disappointment with the soft-hearted Ariadne.

Writer Robbie Carnegie also directs, and cleverly gives the play a lo-fi, village-hall feel; I could maybe have lived without the Kazoos, but the on-stage costume changes and very obvious doubling all add to the sense of shared fun.  Yet the ramshackle style belies some careful planning, and while a few mistakes were evident on the day I attended, they were covered with chutzpah and humour by a quick-thinking cast.  All in all then – whether or not you have kids to accompany you – this wacky, witty panto is worth losing yourself in.