Was this to be a festive season without slapstick? After watching three pantomimes in which no one received a pie in the face or a bucket of dirty water over their head, I was beginning to think so. But then - just as I was beginning to regret the loss of one aspect of traditional panto - Christopher Lillicrap's Window Twankey sashayed to the rescue with some joyously messy moments in her Chinese laundry.

Writer/producer/star Lillicrap and his Proper - for which read slightly improper - Pantomime Company have been providing Reading's annual festive treat for a good few years now. This year's Aladdin maintains the reputation for quality. Besides superb work from the Dame and Harvey James as her son Wishee Washee, there is a first-class Abanaza from Sylvester McCoy. He manages the difficult feat of being both a hissable villain and a source of ready laughter. Another tradition is respected in the provision of a female principal boy. This is not easily done these days, when same-sex activity carries with it overtones understood by even the very young. That Nicola Weeks's Aladdin (pictured) is able to moon over Emma Gilmour's Princess Jasmine without prurient sniggers from the stalls says much for the acting skills of both performers.

Aladdin continues until January 7. (Box office 0118 960 6060).