Review: Pippi Longstocking at Royal and Derngate, Northampton Let’s not beat around the Christmas tree – you should go and see Pippi Longstocking at Northampton’s Royal & Derngate as a panacea to the bleak midwinter – my face ached from smiling from curtain-up to final bow (and the show got a rare standing ovation). Emily-Mae (Pippi) and Mr Nilsson (Hanora Kamen) (photo by Manuel Harlan) Based on the stories by Swedish storyteller Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking follows the adventures of the eponymous heroine, from the chaotic high seas she sails with her (henceforth missing) pirate king dad, to the rather dull Little Town where everything runs like clockwork and rules must be obeyed. Rising star Emily-Mae is mesmerisingly perfect as Pippi, who comes to Little Town to stay at her father’s abandoned house Villa Villekulla, accompanied by her monkey Mr Nilsson (played by the extraordinarily talented and scene-stealing Hanora Kamen) and a horse. As the Strongest Girl in the World (did we mention that?), Pippi is independent and imaginative, but keen to join in the more familial routines of her new young friends, neighbours Tommy and Annika, played with wide-eyed innocence by Matthew Churcher and Philippa Hogg. But the town’s … Continue reading Pippi is a ray of much-needed sunshine at Christmas