This season, pantomimes are shifting from the theatre to drive-ins and online. Two shows will still make a song and dance about it
Iain Lauchlan has been putting on panto in Coventry for almost 30 years. Whenever he starts rehearsals, the writer, director and uproarious dame gives his actors the same advice. “I say we’re not going to have the full pantomime cast until the first night because you need the audience,” he explains. Whether they’re being showered with sweets, dragooned on stage by Widow Twankey or bellowing “It’s behind you!”, audiences always ramp up the voltage.
But this year, Lauchlan has made a show without one. While a few venues still hope to stage socially distanced productions when (or if) theatres reopen in December, Coventry’s Belgrade theatre postponed its pantomime to 2021. “It’s very unusual for me not to do one,” says Lauchlan, who decided to film a show for audiences to watch online this year. A co-creator of Tweenies, he has extensive experience in children’s television and has combined the look and feel of his previous stage and screen work for Jack and the Beanstalk Online, available from the Belgrade next month.