JANUARY is traditionally a quiet time for shops, hotels and open-air ice cream sellers but busy for holiday companies, sofa salesmen, divorce lawyers and York Theatre Royal’s pantomime.

That said, tickets are still available for a show now as well-grooved as a carpenter’s join and consequently at its best for comic interaction between cast members.

As is his wont, writer, co-director and veteran dame Berwick Kaler has filled in the gaps in his own anarchic turn since press night in mid-December, especially milking the physical comedy in his partnership with a scene-stealing stuffed snake, whose name keeps changing.

Martin Barrass, he of the boundless bouncing energy, stands out in two roles as he adds to the pathos of his usual stooge sidekick, Mankee Twankey, with Wisehopper, the slower-than-a-tortoise Chinese sage with wonderfully daft proverbs. Kaler revels in making Barrass switch breathlessly from one to the other only just in time for his next pratfall.

Suzy Cooper’s squeaking, stroppy puppet Princess Peke-A-Boo has everyone in fits; Canadian Al Braatz handles his promotion to principal boy with just the right straightness to add to Kaler’s ever fruitier sense of the camp; while AJ Powell’s Brummie Genie and Jonathan Race’s Abanazar contribute the two best song-and-dance routines.

The slapstick peaks early with the destruction of Widow Twankey’s paper-walled home, although the scene where Dame Berwick keeps bumping into an imaginary door and wall runs it a close second.

Oh, and watch out if you are in the front row. You might well end up on stage.

Aladdin And The Twankeys, York Theatre Royal, until February 1. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatre.co.uk