All over for another year (oh no, it isn't)!

The most exhausting production of the am-dram year is over.

The pantomime played to ten full houses (well, I think there were a couple of empty seats on Wednesday but that’s it, so occupancy, must be 99.5% plus) who all received it with raucous laughter and rapturous applause. Cast and crew acquitted themselves with honours and should be very proud. The sight of several three year olds doing ‘Gangnam Style’ on the stage was mind blowing.

The standard was indeed very high. We had a new Musical Director this year and a new Choreographer and both have challenged the cast far more than in previous years. And the cast rose to that challenge, although as always at the last minute.  The standard of singing and dancing was superb.

This year was my thirty fifth panto, in some capacity or another, without a break. I have been either a member of the company, had a principal role, been on the crew or directed in every panto since 1978. That’s quite an achievement; maybe I should get a plaque or something. This year was my fifth as Director.

I have always loved silly humour and visual gags, both of which traditional panto excels in. Slapstick never fails to make me laugh, and someone getting a bop on the nose or smack in the face is one of the funniest things ever, in my opinion. But then I love Carry On movies, and was a huge fan of Benny Hill, who was one of the funniest comic actors that ever lived alongside Ronnie Barker. It is significant that Benny Hill, who the UK lambasted as sexist and a dirty old man, made huge money in America (which is the most prudish nation on earth) with his silly humour, where at that time they didn’t go all politically correct about it.

The benefit of writing your own scripts as I did this year is that you can change them if you want to and you can pack them full of the silliest jokes, visual stupidity and mess you want. We had a slapstick scene with the Dame getting the custard pie in the face, a rip off of a popular talent show (which shall remain nameless but has the letter ‘X’ in its title), a performing animal (a real one, not a child dressed up) and all the silly ‘behind you’ and ’oh no he isn’t’ you could possibly want. And the audience have loved it.

Lots of people have kindly said to me that this year has been one of the best pantos they can ever remember, and that is saying a lot because there have been some crackers. But that’s because it has gone back to its roots and not been messed about with.  As an art form it is so deeply rooted in tradition that you change or mess about with it at your peril. The audience has certain expectations – the stereotypical characters with all that cross dressing, chasing about, old jokes we all know, booing and hissing, mess and above all boy meets girl and a happy ending. It doesn’t matter where you set it – China, Arabia, an English village or even in the Wild West, as long as it has those ingredients it will succeed.

I’m not Directing next year and I’m seriously considering having a season off (after all this time I think I deserve it) and there is a certain appeal about having a Christmas holiday without any commitments to a show, but I honestly am not sure whether I will be able to keep away. I’ll go along to the read through and see whether there is a part for me, and then decide.

But if I don’t do it, much as I’ll enjoy the time off I know that come this time in 2014 I’ll wish I had!