THE Courtyard panto has gained a reputation for putting its own spin on a festive theatrical tradition. And with Aladdin, this year's treat, they've lived up to that reputation with a show that is full of wit, laughter, music and a brilliantly conceived and timely twist on the story of the boy bamboozled by evil Abanazar to retrieve a magic lamp.

This is no ordinary Abanazar - though he elicits the predicted boos and hisses, he also generates a reluctant degree of sympathy as he pines for Mary Berry, the love of his life! Neither do Lyndsay Maples and Estelle van Warmelo (writer and director respectively) deliver a Disney-style princess as Aladdin's love interest - instead of a coy, submissive girl Herefordshire-born Kate Hanks in her first professional role, gives us a very contemporary heroine, a girl who fights her corner and certainly won't be put in one.

The bones of Aladdin as we know it are here, but it's a structure clothed in the very distinctive Courtyard style - confounding expectations to give us the story of a villain whose villainy is directed at realising his dream of marrying Mary Berry. And who can entirely condemn a man whose heart is set on winning the hand of a national treasure?

Craig Painting as Abanazar delivers what, for me, was the stand-out moment of the show, a tribute to another of this year's losses - Prince - in a version of Purple Rain that will make the track resonate in a different way for ever.

This year's panto welcomes new dame, Phyl Harries, a veteran of Theatr Mold's pantos and a man who clearly relishes donning the frocks and an eye-popping embonpoint to give us a larger-than-life Widow Twankey. Incorporating his impressive sax playing is a masterstroke, bringing another dazzling dimension to the dame. And, as you'd expect from the Dame, there's a moment of pure pathos as the very talented Junior Chorus serenade her as her sons find love elsewhere and she faces life alone.

Returning to The Courtyard panto are Dario Cacioppo as an endearing Aladdin and Madeleine MacMahon as a neatly characterised Jeannie the Genie, but what really makes this panto special is that there are no big names off the telly and no big star. There's just a highly talented cast working together as a tight ensemble to deliver a show in which the pace never slackens, where the jokes are properly witty and the genre is subtly subverted to deliver something that looks like panto - with all the traditional elements of sweet-throwing, he's behind you and Oh yes it is - but has a stronger narrative drive and more complex characters. Oh, and a yeti!

Aladdin runs at The Courtyard until Sunday, January 7. For details of show times, visit courtyard.org.uk or call the box office on 01432 340555.