AFTER a five-month run of nearly 100 performances, the national pantomime, Anansi and Goat Head Soup, will have its final performance on Sunday.

The colourful musical is dedicated to actor Ranny Williams, who would have been 100 years old this year.

The production saw the return of Anancy, a role which Williams made popular on the Jamaican stage. He played the cunning character in a number of pantomimes including Anancy and Busha Bluebeard, Anancy and the Magic Mirror, and Anancy and Doumbey.

Creator of the musical, Barbara Gloudon, says the 70th pantomime will return to the Little Theatre stage later this year as part of celebrations commemorating Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of Independence.

She adds that the economic crunch resulted in Anansi and Goat Head Soup not doing as well as previous pantomimes. As a result, there are no plans for an overseas tour.

Gloudon is, however, pleased with the support the cultural event has received. She explains that as is customary, there was a wealth of support from schools and community groups.

But what is it that keeps audiences coming back year after year?

Splash questioned.

“Schools across the island make it their annual outing, write essays and include it in their school work. We get a lot of groups from as far away as Westmoreland, Hanover and St Elizabeth. It has come to be the big family show, with features especially designed for the children, like the animals this year,” says Gloudon. Anansi and Goat Head Soup does what the national pantomime is billed to do every year — provide family-based entertainment while paying tribute to Jamaican culture.

As usual, it offers a satirical look at current events in Jamaica and the world during the past year.

This year, the focus is the independance celebrations in the community of Jamma-land. However, the plans are being threatened by the return of Anansi, who had been ‘exported’ from the country on suspicion that he is a don. Once he returns, Anansi is in search of his favourite food, goat head soup, and the animals in Jamma-land want to ensure that they do not make it on the menu.

The plot unfolds with the colour, movement, music and excitement which the ‘panto’ is known for.

On the night the Jamaica Observer viewed, the younger members of the audience were in hysterics, especially with the antics of the animals.

Other present-day references incorporated by scriptwriter Gloudon were former Prime Minister Andrew Holding’s election campaign reference to eucalyptus oil; People’s National Party lawyer KD Knight’s famous line “pathologically mendacious” during the Manatt/Dudus commission of inquiry, and a ‘cash fi goat’ scheme, which all went over well with the audience.

But it was the embattled deejay Vybz Kartel’s signature laugh and sale of ‘cake soap’ which really had the audience going.

The Observer was not to be left out, as Mrs Anansi commented after a shopping trip, “full time dem put me pon Page 2.”