Justin Fletcher and Paul Morse return for Aladdin, 48 shows from 5 December at £20 to £47.50. Reading Rep's Christmas Carol captions and signs every show.
Reading’s pantomime this year is Aladdin at the Hexagon, running Saturday 5 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027. It is the town’s only professional panto: the It’s Panto Time listing run by Reading Arts and Venues carries one show, and this is it.
Booking is open now. Everything below comes from the venue’s own listing and its published performance schedule, checked on 4 September 2026.
Updated 19 October: Reading Rep’s Thursday 3 December performance of A Christmas Carol is back on sale; only Wednesday 25 November is now sold out.
Updated 13 October: Reading Rep’s A Christmas Carol is now a co-production with Ramps on the Moon, and every performance has audio description, captions and BSL built in. Its prices and sold-out dates have changed too. Details in the Reading Rep section.
Who is in it
Justin Fletcher plays Aladdin and Paul Morse plays Widow Twankey. Reading has had the same double act for several years and the venue listing calls them “Reading’s favourite panto double act”. The show is produced by Imagine Theatre, which also has Aladdin running at Halifax and Stafford this Christmas.
The producer’s page gives the practical bits the venue page does not: it is suitable for ages 3 and up, runs about 125 minutes including a 20 minute interval, and has one interval with ice creams.
What it costs
Prices are set by a colour band, and the band depends on which performance you pick. These are the full price ranges from the Hexagon’s performance schedule and prices.
| Band | Platinum | Gold | Red |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £47.50 | £44.50 | £41.50 |
| B | £45.75 | £42.75 | £39.75 |
| C | £44.00 | £41.00 | £38.00 |
| D | £42.25 | £39.25 | £36.25 |
| E | £40.50 | £37.50 | £34.50 |
| Restricted view | £33.50 | £30.50 | £27.50 |
| Band | Blue | Green | Pink |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | £39.50 | £37.00 | £34.00 |
| B | £37.75 | £35.25 | £32.25 |
| C | £36.00 | £33.50 | £30.50 |
| D | £34.25 | £31.75 | £28.75 |
| E | £32.50 | £30.00 | £27.00 |
| Restricted view | £25.50 | £23.00 | £20.00 |
The venue’s page advertises “Full Price Tickets £27 to £47.50”. That is accurate for a full-view seat, but it is not the cheapest way in. A restricted view seat in the Pink band is £20.00, and the Purple band used for the relaxed performances carries only two prices in the whole schedule, £24.00 and £21.50. Prices are e-ticket prices and include fees.
Discounts worth knowing:
- Under 16s get £2 off Blue, Green and Pink performances and £1 off Red.
- Groups of 10 or more pay £26.50 to £34.50 on the higher bands, with one in 20 free.
- Youth groups of 10 or more pay £23.50 to £31.00, one in 20 free.
- Schools pay £15.00 a head on Blue performances, with one in 11 free.
Box office is 0118 960 6060 or boxoffice@reading.gov.uk. Group and school bookings of 10 or more go through 0118 937 2011.
Access performances, and what Reading does not get
The Hexagon has four access performances, and both the venue and the producer publish the same four, so this is settled:
| Type | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Relaxed | Friday 11 December | 10.30am |
| BSL signed | Saturday 12 December | 1pm |
| BSL signed | Monday 28 December | 5pm |
| Relaxed | Wednesday 30 December | 10.30am |
There is no captioned performance and no audio-described performance in Reading. Imagine Theatre’s FAQ for this production says “BSL-interpreted, audio-described, captioned and relaxed performances are scheduled” and points you at its accessible performances list. That list is where it becomes clear the sentence is about the company, not about Reading: Coventry gets audio description and two captioned shows, Bromley gets audio description and captioning, Cardiff, Dartford, High Wycombe, Llandudno and Swindon all get audio description. Reading’s entry has two relaxed and two signed performances and nothing else.
If you need audio description or captioning, the nearest Imagine venue offering it is Wycombe Swan at High Wycombe (Peter Pan, audio described Monday 28 December at 5pm), about 45 minutes’ drive.
For relaxed performances the Hexagon prioritises customers registered on its Access List, so join that before booking rather than after.
The performance schedule
Forty-eight performances across 24 playing days, two a day every day the show runs. Weekends are 1pm and 5pm. Weekdays in the first fortnight start at 10.30am, with a second show at 2pm, 6.30pm or 7pm depending on the date. From 19 December it settles into 1pm and 5pm.
The dark days matter if you are planning a trip. There is no performance at all on Monday 7 December, Tuesday 8 December, Monday 14 December, Friday 18 December, Christmas Day or Friday 1 January. Christmas Eve is 11am and 3pm, New Year’s Eve is 11am and 3pm, and the run finishes on Sunday 3 January with 11am and 3pm.
The alternative: A Christmas Carol at Reading Rep
If a panto is not what you want, Reading Rep on King’s Road is doing A Christmas Carol, from Charles Dickens’s novel, with live music. Age guidance is 6+, it runs about 120 minutes, and tickets are £20 to £39, including a £1 booking fee per ticket (Reading Rep, checked 13 October).
It is now a co-production with Ramps on the Moon, which describes its work as “driving a growing movement for anti-ableist change across the mainstream cultural sector”. That has changed how the show is staged. Reading Rep’s page says: “Every performance includes integrated audio description and captions as well as BSL interpretation.”
In September the theatre listed a single signed and captioned performance, on Thursday 10 December. Now every one of the dates is accessible in that way. The theatre’s seating advice:
- for the captions or BSL, sit in rows A to E
- for BSL, sit in seats 3 to 15
A relaxed performance is still listed as available, but no date is tagged for it. Signed and touch tours are not scheduled either. For any of those, ring the box office on 0118 370 2620.
The run is Saturday 21 November to Sunday 3 January. The council’s What’s On Reading listing said 19 November when we first checked; the theatre’s own booking list starts on the 21st, so go with that.
One evening is sold out: Wednesday 25 November at 7.30pm. Thursday 3 December, listed as sold out on 13 October, was bookable again on 19 October, so returns do come back. The Christmas week has double performances at 1pm and 6pm on 22, 23, 24, 28, 29 and 30 December, a 3pm show on Boxing Day and a 1pm show on New Year’s Eve.
Getting there
The Hexagon is on Queen’s Walk, RG1 7QF, inside the IDR and a ten minute walk from Reading station. Imagine Theatre’s own advice is to park at Broad Street Mall, RG1 7QE, which is the closest multi-storey. Watch the closing time if you are at an evening performance that finishes near 10pm. Our Reading parking page has the tariffs, and the roadworks and travel page is worth a look before you drive in.
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