REVIEW – THE MAGIC BOOKMARK AT HOME MANCHESTER – BOOKS, PANTO FUN & PLENTY OF LAUGHS
The Magic Bookmark at HOME Manchester 📚✨
On Sunday 2nd August, we saw The Magic Bookmark at HOME Manchester as part of the Little HOME Family Festival – and it ended up giving us one of the biggest surprises of our weekend.
Just before the performance, Leo had become upset and decided he didn't want to watch another show. Lawrence initially took him out of Theatre 2, but Leo changed his mind at the last minute and came back in just before it started.
I'm very glad he did, because by the end The Magic Bookmark was his favourite show of our entire Little HOME weekend!
Theatre 2 At HOME Manchester 🎭
The Magic Bookmark was performed in Theatre 2, one of HOME's smaller and more intimate theatre spaces.
Seating was unreserved for our performance, so we chose to sit towards the back. Despite being further away from the stage, we still had a really good view and the smaller size of the theatre meant we never felt particularly far from the action.
With Leo settled back in his seat just before the show began, it was time to meet Mama G and discover exactly what The Magic Bookmark was all about.
The Magic Bookmark 📚🌈
The show begins with a colourful animated introduction featuring a collection of cartoon characters, including a dragon, accompanied by a catchy song about looking inside books and discovering the stories waiting to be explored.
Then we meet Mama G, played by Robert Pearce, the wonderfully larger-than-life librarian of the Panto Land Library.
Unfortunately, there's trouble in the library.
Book Worm, the show's panto baddie, once loved books but has become rather annoyed that worms appear so far towards the end of the alphabet. He decides that if things can't be done his way, everyone else's books are going to disappear.
Mama G isn't going to let that happen without a fight.
Believing that books can help make the world a better place and that everyone deserves to see themselves represented in stories, she sets off on an adventure with the Magic Bookmark to find the books she needs to prove Book Worm wrong.
What follows is a lovely mixture of children's storytelling and traditional pantomime, with plenty of silliness, songs, colourful visuals and opportunities for the audience to join in.
A Journey Through Stories 🏰📖
Mama G's adventure takes her to three different locations: a castle, an island and a fairground.
Every time she needs to travel somewhere new, Mama G gets the audience to join her in the travel song. Because it returns throughout the show, the children quickly learn when it's time to sing along.
At the castle, Mama G finds a book, only to discover that its pages are empty.
This is where the children have to help.
Everyone shouts "Abracadabra!" to make the contents appear, but naturally it doesn't work properly the first time.
Apparently, we weren't loud enough!
So everyone has to try again.
Mama G later travels to an island, where she discovers The Lipstick, written by Laura Dockrill and illustrated by Maria Karipidou, which she reads to the audience.
Her final journey takes her to a fairground, where she finds Oh Yes I Am!, written by Mama G herself and illustrated by Totò.
I really liked the way the books were incorporated into the production. It never felt as though the main show suddenly stopped for a separate storytime. Instead, each book became part of Mama G's adventure and helped move the wider story forward.
Songs, Puppetry & Lots Of Audience Participation 🎶
One of the biggest strengths of The Magic Bookmark is just how much there is for children to get involved with.
There are plenty of traditional panto moments, including "Oh yes I am!" and "Oh no you're not!", as well as lots of opportunities to warn Mama G when something is happening behind her.
The travel song gives everyone another chance to join in, and the original songs are incredibly catchy. Several were still stuck in my head long after we'd left HOME!
There is also a song that mentions lots of different books, with their covers appearing on screen as Mama G sings about them. I thought this worked really well and fitted perfectly with the show's celebration of reading.
The Magic Bookmark itself is brought to life as a colourful puppet with large expressive eyes and a moving mouth. It gives Mama G another character to interact with and adds another fun visual element for younger children.
The participation isn't limited to shouting and singing from your seat either. At our performance, some children were invited onto the stage to help Mama G, which naturally created plenty of excitement.
These interactive moments worked really well, as the children weren't simply watching Mama G's adventure – they were regularly being encouraged to become part of it.
Mama G & That Brilliant Costume Change 🌈
Mama G was definitely a hit with Alice and Leo.
She is warm, energetic, very silly and wonderfully over the top, with exactly the larger-than-life personality you'd expect from a pantomime dame.
Both children found her really funny, and I particularly liked how naturally she responded to things the children shouted from the audience. With a family show like this, you never quite know what a child is going to say, but Mama G made those spontaneous moments feel like part of the fun.
Her costumes are equally larger than life.
Mama G initially appears in a huge purple and white gingham dress with enormous lilac sleeves, pink details, pearls and an impressive sculpted hairstyle.
Then comes one of my favourite moments of the show.
Mama G spins around and the gingham dress suddenly transforms to reveal a bright rainbow dress underneath.
It was such a fun reveal and exactly the kind of colourful theatrical moment that gets a reaction from a young audience.
A Lovely Message Behind The Panto Fun 💛
Although The Magic Bookmark is packed with silliness, songs and panto fun, there is a lovely message underneath it all.
At its heart, the show celebrates books and the importance of children being able to discover stories about different people, different families and different ways of being themselves.
What I particularly liked was that this never felt too heavy for the children.
The message is simply woven into the adventure. Alice and Leo were busy laughing at Mama G, singing the travel song and joining in with the panto, while those ideas were being introduced naturally through the books and story.
It makes the production entertaining first and foremost, while still giving families something meaningful to take away from it.
Final Thoughts ⭐
We all really enjoyed The Magic Bookmark at HOME Manchester.
It is a colourful and funny family show that brings together children's books, pantomime, original songs, animation and puppetry in a way that works really well for a young audience.
I particularly liked how the books became part of the adventure rather than feeling like separate storytime sections, and there was always something happening to keep the children interested.
But I think the biggest recommendation has to come from Leo.
He went from not wanting to watch the show at all to choosing The Magic Bookmark as his favourite show of our entire Little HOME weekend.
I don't think I could ask for a better review than that!
More Information About The Magic Bookmark 📍
The Magic Bookmark was performed at HOME Manchester as part of the Little HOME Family Festival on Sunday 2nd August 2026.
The show runs for approximately 55 minutes with no interval and is aimed at audiences aged 4+.
Our performance at Little HOME was free, although tickets needed to be booked in advance, with a small number also available on the day. This was specific to the Little HOME Family Festival, and performances at other venues may have a ticket charge.
The Magic Bookmark is a touring production. You can visit the official The Magic Bookmark website to find tour dates, venues and further information about the show.
If you'd like to read my more detailed theatre-focused review of the production, you can also head over to our sister site, All About Theatre.
🎥 Watch Our Visit In Weekly Vlog #462
If you'd like to see more from our weekend at Little HOME Family Festival, including our visit to see The Magic Bookmark, you can watch it in Weekly Vlog #462.
Our Little HOME Family Festival visit begins at 13:12 in the vlog.
At A Glance
📍 Venue: HOME Manchester
🎭 Theatre: Theatre 2 – one of HOME's smaller, more intimate theatre spaces
📅 Performance Attended: Sunday 2nd August 2026 at 2pm
🎪 Event: Little HOME Family Festival
🎟️ Our Tickets: Free with advance booking as part of Little HOME Family Festival. Performances at other venues are normally ticketed, so check individual venues for prices.
💺 Seating: Unreserved for our performance
👑 Starring: Robert Pearce as Mama G
📚 What To Expect: Children's storytelling, pantomime, original songs, puppetry, animation and lots of audience participation
📖 Books Featured: The Lipstick by Laura Dockrill, illustrated by Maria Karipidou, and Oh Yes I Am! by Mama G, illustrated by Totò
🙋 Audience Participation: Lots of opportunities to sing and shout along, with three children invited onto the stage at our performance
🌈 Our Highlights: Mama G's humour, the catchy songs, Magic Bookmark puppet and rainbow costume transformation
🚋 Getting There: HOME is easily accessible by tram, bus and train
🚊 Closest Tram Stop: Deansgate-Castlefield
🚆 Closest Train Station: Deansgate
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