Pantomime takes new direction

Nelson Repertory Theatre is set to perform its annual family pantomime at the Theatre Royal next week - but it won’t be like any pantomime you’ve seen before.

‘Go West’ tells the tale of Bella McSporran, a loveable Scottish Dame whose home is in jeopardy, and sets sail on a journey west to New Zealand.

It promises to be a “heartwarming and hilarious” pantomime full of songs, silliness, and smiles - however, writer and director Alli Campbell says that this is a pantomime unlike any other.

Alli explains that last year she was faced with some “hard truths” about her previous pantomimes after chatting to some theatre members.

“We have many members who are from the LGBTQ+ community, and one of them raised with me how hurtful and often inappropriate it is to have the punchline be solely around having a man in a dress,” she says.

It was a sentiment echoed by many she spoke to, and she said that her initial reaction was one of bewilderment.

“I honestly thought, what’s the big deal with having a pantomime dame?”

So, Alli tried to create her script with it all removed and realised she couldn’t make it work as so much of the traditional humour relied on jokes surrounding the idea of cross-dressing.

The exercise facilitated a realisation for Alli - that the humour didn’t work because of how inappropriate it was.

“It really made me stop and think, and then all of a sudden, I couldn’t unsee it. I went back and critically reevaluated some of my past scripts, noticing how lazy some of the jokes were and also how absolutely inappropriate they were, too.”

After consulting a number of theatrical, knowledgeable, and interested parties, Alli realised that for the new script to work she had to modify the behaviour of all characters to be appropriate for today's modern audiences.

“Last year’s pantomime [a traditional panto version of Camelot] had a princess being kissed while asleep and someone in the audience shouted that they ought to ask for consent. It may be a traditional story, but they had a point. Traditions are worth reviewing from time to time.”

She says this was the catalyst for ‘Go West’ which still contains all of the fun elements you want in a pantomime but with nothing to leave you feeling “icky” while watching.

“We’ve still got a bloke in a dress as our pantomime dame, but that’s no longer the punchline.”

Alli says this whole journey has resulted in a much funnier show because it’s forced her to find less obvious jokes rather than leaning into the easy and obvious punchlines.

She says there will still be some “truly groan-worthy” jokes and puns.

“I knew I’d achieved what I was aiming for at the test reading of the script. Not only was everyone laughing, but someone who’d previously had quite a bad experience being made to feel uncomfortable in a pantomime found my gaze across the table and gave me a big double thumbs up.”

‘Go West’ is being performed at the Theatre Royal from 13 - 16 December. Tickets can be purchased in person at the theatre, or online here.