Step inside the surreal world of Lidlpool at the Royal Court

Something wicked is afoot in the city of Lidlpool, where wolf-like property developers have hatched a diabolical plan to flatten a nan's cottage and build a multi-storey car park. Luckily, Little Red and her best pal Blue are on hand to save her nan from disaster.

The plot of the Scouse Red Riding Hood gets dafter and more surreal as it goes along, but who cares when everyone's having this much fun? When I went to see this adult panto at the weekend, the audience at the Royal Court Theatre lapped up the Scouse in-jokes, and loved the risqué gags that came a mile a minute.

The writers clearly know their audience, and everyone gets a good ribbing - from Wools, to 'Redsh**es', to Lidlpool City Council. Anyone who wasn't around in the 1970s might get a bit lost with some of the jokes, especially the riff on the Smash Martians (here, the Martians become the 'Mingers' - Scouse descendants of the Clangers). But my advice is just to go with it and enjoy the madness.

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There are some cracking performances from the cast, who are clearly having a whale of a time on stage. Lindzi Germain as Grandma is an obvious standout. Lindzi dominates every scene she's in and was the biggest source of belly laughs. Andrew Schofield and Keddy Sutton as property developers Cash and Carry do a great turn as the show's resident baddies.

The music is pretty decent too. Chantel Cole sang a stunning rendition of One Moment in Time which brought the house down, and the live band gave the show a nice energy and vim.

If I'm honest, I was expecting more filth from an adult panto. There's plenty of swearing, lots of toilet jokes, and a bawdy sequence involving Grandma tearing off her dowdy cardigan to reveal a sexy leather corset. But none of it will leave you reaching for the smelling salts.

It's definitely worth a trip to the Royal Court to see the panto, especially if you can bag a dinner reservation on one of the downstairs tables.