York's first alternative panto at The Crescent

If your usual Christmas plan is a family panto with the kids in tow, this one is the opposite. On Wednesday 16 December, The Crescent puts on 'Cinderella! – York's Alternative Panto', which bills itself as the city's first ever alternative pantomime. The recommended age is 14 and over, with the organisers being pretty blunt about it: leave the little kids at home. It's a mischievous, raucous take on the Christmas classic, described as a madcap music gig meets a village hall play with a dash of poetry slam, all held at The Crescent, a community venue that doubles as a gig and comedy space.

The cast reads like a who's who of York's spoken-word and performance scene. At the centre is the Say Owt team – Henry Raby, Jarmouse, Hannah Davies and Stu Freestone – joined by Paula Clark, Jo Foxton, Olivia Mulligan, Bobby Olley, Andy Love, Ed Rugg, Lizzy Whynes and a few extra special guests still to be confirmed. The poster is by Jon Haste.

For anyone not familiar with the names, Say Owt is the collective Henry Raby and Stu Freestone set up back in 2014, now rounded out by Hannah Davies and Bram Jarman, who performs as Jarmouse. They programme and host poetry slams, workshops, open-mics, gigs and performance events across Yorkshire and beyond, and they've played the Great Yorkshire Fringe, the ArtsBarge, the Edinburgh Fringe, Deer Shed, the Ilkley Literature Festival and York Theatre Royal, among other stages. They were Highly Commended for Best Performance at the York Culture Awards in 2018, so the bill has some genuine local pedigree behind it.

Individually, the principals carry a fair bit of weight in the city's arts scene. Henry Raby is a York-based poet and spoken-word artist, co-founder of Say Owt, part of the Vandal Factory theatre company and a broadcasting worker at Chapel FM Arts Centre; he's known as a punk poet and wrote the collection Nerd Punk, published by Burning Eye Books in 2018. Jarmouse is the stage name of Bram David Jarman, a York poet, playwright, songwriter and musician whose work blends spoken word, poetry and music. Between them, the Say Owt four have spent over a decade building a reputation for the kind of performance that sits somewhere between a gig and a poetry slam, which is exactly the energy this Cinderella is leaning into.

Practically, it's a straightforward night. Doors open at 19:00, the show starts at 19:30 and wraps around 21:30, so you're in and out in a reasonable evening. It's a seated show with unreserved seating, so there's no need to fret over a specific spot. Tickets are £15 plus a booking fee, sold through See Tickets, and the venue itself is a community-run space that takes its gigs, comedy and events seriously, with an Excellent rating on Trustpilot to back it up. If you're after a panto that swaps the family-friendly script for something a bit more grown-up and local, this is the one to keep an eye on.