Jump to main content

Your wish has been granted - Aladdin and his friends will be at the Corn Exchange this Christmas for our socially distanced pantomime.

Important: It has been announced that West Berkshire will be moving into Tier 3 from Saturday 19 December. This means that, with a heavy heart, we will have to close our doors once more, and will not be able to continue with our scheduled performances of Aladdin.

Please bear with us and do not contact the box office at this time as we will get in touch with everyone who has booked tickets for the affected shows.

With a little pantomime magic, and a lot of hard work behind the scenes, we are thrilled to announce that we will be taking you on a magic carpet ride adventure this Christmas.

Take the trip of a lifetime and journey to far off lands with Aladdin and his friends, as they discover treasures beyond their wildest dreams. But will they foil Abanazar’s evil plan? And will Widow Twankey ever get through her mountain of laundry?

Aladdin is written and directed by Plested and Brown, and is full of songs from across the decades and traditional Corn Exchange pantomime fun - plus a few surprises, of course!

In order to make pantomime possible, we will be rebuilding our auditorium seating so we can increase capacity whilst still adhering to social distancing measures. Our new seating layout will have more space between rows, the new seats will have individual arm rests, and each household group will be kept separate using dividing Perspex screens.

You can book with confidence as, if you are unwell with COVID-19 symptoms or having to self-isolate, we will refund your tickets or credit your account.

So rub that lamp, book your tickets and make all of your Christmas wishes come true!

Please remember to bring your face covering with you as visitors are required to wear them in the building, unless you are exempt from wearing one, or if you are eating or drinking. This includes when you are watching a performance. If you remove it to eat or drink you must put it back on when you have finished.

Production shot of four actors in villager costumes holding umbrellas to mimic wheels of a car, with Susan Harrison as Wishee Washee miming driving the car and George Olney as Aladdin behind.
Production shot of Emily Mae as Celia Siri, Ben Barrow as the Genie and George Olney as Aladdin standing in a line, leaning to the left and looking into the distance.
Production shot of Susan Harrison as Wishee Washee holding her hand up in a stop sign to Ben Barrow as PC Correct in a prop police car.
Production shot of Ben Harlow as Abanazar in an action pose with his hands like cat claws and Philip Elvy as Widow Twankey in a lantern dress scowling at Abanazar.

Find out more about our cast and creative & production team:

Super Saver performances: Sun 6 Dec, 5pm | Thu 10 Dec, 7pm

Adult Only nights: Fri 4 Dec, 8pm | Fri 11 Dec, 8pm | Sat 12 Dec, 8pm | Fri 18 Dec, 8pm | Sat 19 Dec, 8pm

Signed performance: Tue 29 Dec, 2pm

Captioned performance: Wed 30 Dec, 2pm

Audio described performance: Wed 30 Dec, 6pm

Relaxed performance: Sat 2 Jan, 3pm

Meet the Stars of this year's Pantomime...

Close up photos of the cast members' faces, smiling - Ben Barrow, William Beckerleg, Philip Elvy, Ben Harlow, Susan Harrison, Nikita Johal, Emily-Mae, George Olney and Gleanne Purcell Brown - on a red background with golden trees, Chinese-style buildings and a golden lamp.

Running Time: 1hr 50mins approx. (including interval)

Booking information:

Tickets must be booked in advance and we ask customers to select an e-ticket if possible. If you are unable to book an e-ticket, please speak to our Box Office team.

We want you to feel confident about booking in advance for the pantomime. It is very important that people displaying symptoms of COVID-19 do not come to theatre so, if you are unwell with coronavirus symptoms or having to self-isolate, please phone the Box Office and we will arrange for your tickets to be transferred, credited to your account or refunded, as long as you tell us in advance of the performance time.

You must only book tickets for people in your household or support bubble. If you wish to come with someone who is not in your household or support bubble, they will need to book tickets in a separate transaction. In accordance with Government regulations sectors including leisure, entertainment and hospitality and therefore the Corn Exchange, Newbury are now legally obliged to have a system in place to request and record contact details of their customers, visitors and staff to help break the chains of transmission of coronavirus. Therefore your booking details will now be used for Test and Trace purposes.

Find out more about your visit to see the Corn Exchange's socially distanced pantomime