Valencia Family Pantomime Theatre at ‘Wickedly Ever After’

**We were kindly gifted free admission to the theatre show ‘Wickedly Ever After’, by BCC Productions, Valence, en échange d'une promotion via ce site Web et nos réseaux sociaux. All opinions expressed remain our own.

Introduction

We are always on the lookout for new and cultural things to do with our children in and around Costa Blanca. While we obviously try to experience our fair share of Spanish fiestas and experiences, sometimes an English language activity makes a nice change and gives us a little taste of home.

Donc, during our recent visit to the city of Valencia, we were delighted to discover a pantomime theatre production of the show ‘Wickedly Ever After’. The show was being performed in English by the theatre company BCC Productions.

The show was originally due to take place back in October 2024 but sadly had to be postponed because of the state of emergency brought about by the extensive flooding and damage caused to the city by Storm DANA. We caught the show on one of its rescheduled dates in early February 2025.

Ici, we share our experiences of attending this pantomime show with our 4 enfants (âge 10, 8, 6 & 4).

What is a pantomime?

If you are British and reading this, you will no doubt know exactly what a pantomime is. For anyone who is unsure though, a pantomime is a lively type of theatre show that is aimed at all the family and encourages audience participation.

Drawing influences from Medieval Europe, the pantomime really emerged as an art form in Great Britain during the last few hundred years. Based on traditional folk tales and fairy stories, pantomimes build on these storylines by adding elaborate costumes, farce and cross dressing. While always suitable for children, there is usually plenty of inuendo and jokes for any adult audience members to also find funny.

Traditionally held around the Christmas period each year, pantomimes are a great way of introducing children to theatre in an environment that is noisier and less fussy than a typical theatre show.

Who are BCC Productions?

BCC Productions (Baila con Cameron) are an amateur English language theatre company based in Valencia, Espagne. With a cast of both adults and children, they run drama courses and put on several live theatre shows a year.

Where can I watch the theatre shows by BCC Productions?

The shows by BCC productions are staged at the Teatre el Patio de Butacas, in central Valencia.

Review of ‘Wickedly Ever After’

In short, the show was fabulous. It was genuinely much better than I was expecting. The production quality was good and all of us were kept entertained throughout.

The story for ‘Wickedly Ever After’ is loosely based on a re-telling of several traditional tales combined, with villains from different stories joining together to try and overcome the good characters in the play and prevent their happily-ever-after. Think Captain Hook from Peter Pan and Ursula from the Little Mermaid together on the same stage.

There was the usual mix of cross dressing and over-the-top costumes on display from the main pantomime dame, with plenty of jokes throughout. My kids loved the overall spectacle, while I appreciated the subtlety of some of the jokes aimed squarely at the adult audience members. I laughed out loud on several occasions!

The show had no interval but, with a running time of just over 1 heure, was also not overly long either. This meant that even my usually fidgety four year old made it through to the end with no problem (although admittedly some sweets were required!). We all left at the end with smiles on our faces.

En résumé

‘Wickedly Ever After’ by BCC Productions was a triumph. We’ve been to loads of pantomimes back in England over the years (including before even having kids I’m ashamed to admit), and this show matched them for design and more importantly humour. When I’m going to a pantomime theatre show I want laughs, and this show didn’t disappoint.

If you find yourself visiting Valencia at any time soon, definitely check out BCC Productions to see if they have any shows on. We really enjoyed going to an English language cultural evening activity – the kind that we sometimes struggle to find closer to our home in Southern Costa Blanca.

Even if we don’t manage to get back before next Christmas, we’ll hopefully be returning for their 2025 pantomime. I’m looking forward to it already!