We hear about it from Scunthorpe Little Theatre Club’s resident Dame…
“If you had told me six years ago that I would end up on stage as a panto Dame, I would have told you that this was a likely as the Eastbourne Over 90s Zimmer Frame athletics team coming first in the Olympics.
My first panto was with the Scunthorpe Little Theatre Club (SLTC), playing the baddie in Aladdin. Sadly, my Mum died soon after (possibly a comment on my acting), and my new acting hobby put on hold. A year later I was asked by SLTC to join their production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and I was hooked.
The next panto, I was a henchman in Sleeping Beauty, then a year later (after portraying Flashheart in Blackadder Goes Forth) I first donned the bloomers in Dick Whittington as ‘Sarah The Cook’.
This was an education. I had to have support from one of our cast with stage paint – my first attempt was a bit Alice Cooper! But I was hooked!
The next year was the Hamlet of pantos – Mother Goose (on stage all the time except for two short scenes – all those lines!). This time I developed my own makeup technique using proper make-up. I now have better a better selection than my daughters, with a massive box (yes, double meaning there – this is panto after all!).
After the pandemic, I was back again as Dame Durdon (Jack and the Beanstalk), Miss Nelly (Frankenstein the Panto), and recently Chardonnay (one of Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters) opposite my eldest daughter Amber as my sister Chantelle (possibly the youngest woman in SLTC history to play a Dame!).
In my seven years onstage, I’ve played many characters –a Discworld Troll, Prime Minister, even the Prince Regent, but there is something special about playing Dame – the audience! Not many other characters in a panto get the chance to trash the fourth wall so flagrantly. The interaction with the audience is the best bit!
There is nothing subtle about my style, in the words of my hero Rik Mayall, “stamping around, shouting and being great!” It’s worked so far…
In January 2025 SLTC are performing Aladdin again, and of course I’m trying for the part of Widow Twankey! Hopefully I will get it – Dame On!”