pitched high above the audience, but by now they must be used to the rattling they get every year at panto time. For nowhere do pantogoers react more enthusiastically and vociferously to events on stage than they do at this address.

This year Sleeping Beauty is on offer, in a new version written and directed by Phil Willmott. As the curtain rises, Princess Chardonnay (Clare Plested) is having trouble finding a boyfriend — could her problem be that she doesn’t appear to come from quite the most aristocratic of social backgrounds? In desperation she kisses a frog (Adam Brown). “Yuk,” cries the audience. But this is no ordinary frog — frogs don’t normally wear sparkly silver codpieces. He’s transformed into King Jeremy, marries Chardonnay, and before long Princess Rose (Joanna Woodward) appears.

Enter Nanny McBubbles (Ian Mowat), who is ace at firing water pistols into the audience. “Would you like to sing?” she cries, following that up with: “Am I good looking?” “Yes, yes, no, no,” come the respective replies, quick as a flash. Mowat, along with several other cast members, was in last year’s Corn Exchange Puss in Boots, and knows exactly how to work a Newbury audience. Well-upholstered Nanny’s greatest moment comes in a hilarious dance routine featuring a giant beach ball, which miraculously never quite falls to the ground. The reference to a certain robust contestant in Strictly Come Dancing is hard to miss.

There must be baddies too, and they come in the form of leather-clad evil sprite Spindle (Joe Wicks), and the aptly named Fairy Acid Drop (Katherine Hare), who hopes to finish the Princess off with a giant, poisoned pin. All ends happily, of course, in this energetic panto, which flagged only when a couple of slow ballads outstayed their welcome. But against that, the Lady Gaga impression went down a real treat.

Until January 3. Box office: 01635 522733 (cornexchangenew.com).