Review: Dennis’ Little Chip Shop of Horrors at Customs House South Shields

Invited: Review by Stephen Stokoe on October 29, 2026

I do love Halloween, and it has become something of a tradition around this time of year for me to spend at least part of it at The Customs House in South Shields for their spooky offering, On arrival at lunchtime today the place was absolutely bouncing with excited little ghouls, ghosties, and witches keen to get a tasty morsel from Dennis’ Little Chip Shop of Horrors.

You never know what to expect from these productions, but you are assured of a good laugh, some cracking choreography, some groan-worthy jokes, and some slapstick. These could be ticked off one by one in this hour-long production about some alien goings-on in Cooksonville.

The story as always follow Cousin Dennis who, spending time away from his mam, gets a job in Uncle Mushynik’s (Steven Stobbs) chip shop “Frying Nemo.” The writing team, including Sunderland Panto legend Tom Whalley, have had great fun with the names and action referencing several musicals and plays throughout this production. It certainly ticks all the boxes for being a great introduction to theatre for the little ones while being great fun to boot.

Dennis (The Customs House resident dafty, Glen Richard Townsend) is as madcap as ever. His energy throughout the production never drops. In this production he is joined by Kerry Sauce (Lily Fisher) who matches and complements Townsend’s energy perfectly. Stobb provides a modicum of sanity to proceedings. His attempt to match Fisher’s tap dancing is hilarious to watch.

All seems to be grim for the chip shop owner when a talking sausage arrives to change all of their fortunes. Hot on the alien savaloys heels is Agent X (Isobel Donkin) who acts as the show’s antagonist. Donkin’s performance is perfect once she gets into her snarling best but I do feel that her introduction did not clearly identify her as the “baddie” at whom the children could boo and hiss as is traditional and expected.

There is some wonderful choreography in the show and the dance numbers from Art of Dance are slick, well directed and the youngsters are clearly enjoying themselves enormously. Very well done indeed.

The technical team at Customs House are also in fine form with a lot of work clearly gone into how the show looks. The lighting is well designed and executed and the sound is very good. All the elements of the pantomime are there with sight gags, water pistols, some loving singing and a delightfully sweet sausage puppet who the audience really get behind especially in the second half. There is a running gag where said sausage cannot get Uncle Mushnik’s name right which I thought was excellent but then I am a sucker for a running gag and “Mush, Mush” appealed to the little boy deep in my soul.

This is the perfect production for your little ones this Halloween, and judging by this afternoon’s reactions, I expect some of them will be begging their parents to take them back for another portion from Dennis’ Little Chip Shop of Horrors.

Dennis’ Little Chip Shop of Horrors runs at the Customs House until 31st October 2026. Tickets are available from customshouse.co.uk