THIS year’s sell-out Bute Community Panto was loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairytale–The Snow Queen.
The multimedia show, which took place in the Winter Garden cinema, included filmed sequences as well as the traditional live panto action as the Brandanes used creative licence to bring Christian Andersen’s play to life.
To create some of the filmed scenes, 14 children took part in an after- school group run past local children’s charity, Achievement Bute, one day a week during September and October. They worked with the panto director, Dorothy McDonald, and local film-maker, Chris Ratcliffe, recording their own rap and filming a music video which became of one of the key scenes,.
The scene involved scary goblins, an evil troll and a group of sassy TikTok influencers as well as a GOAT (Greatest of All Time).
Meanwhile, during October and November the onstage cast of 15 rehearsed for four hours every week to master their roles, hone the jokes and generally bring to life the story of wee Gerda.
Played with fantastic assurance by 11-year old Annabel Usher, Gerda tries to get to the north pole to save her best friend Kay– played on Friday by Danny Faria, and on Saturday by Dylan Pellegrotti–from the clutches of the evil Snow Queen, played with dastardly aplomb by Anna Harrison.
However, the overenthusiastic interventions of health and safety officer, Willie Bannit, played with customary
panache by Paul Duffy, and his interactions with Dames Agnes–played by Aidan Canavan in his first ever panto role–and Senga–played by Bute panto veteran Roddy Clenaghan– resulting in catastrophe and hilarity.
Along the way they meet with various traditional characters from the story: The petulant raven, played by Amelia Harrison who made the most of her ‘two lines’; the beautiful princess, played by Bobbi Tams on Friday and Cora Pescod on Saturday; the little robber maiden, played by Cozy Allen; the Finnish woman, played by Grace Wallace; and last but not least the Lapp Woman, played by Mhairi MacKenzie.
As always, there was also a huge amount of effort behind the scenes by a team of 15 talented and dedicated volunteers. Irene McGregor came off the stage and took on the role of prompter this year and Peter McDonald provided general assistance with the projections, as well as distracting the cast by dancing about in the projection room. The pantomime reindeer and elaborate makeup and costumes were created by Jessie Gardner, Amy Hannah, Boo Ritson, Sarah Palmer Scoon and Carolynn Stirling. Local illustrator and designer, Louise Johnson, created the fabulous backgrounds which were animated by Chris Ratcliffe. The lighting crew was Rory Pescod, Richard and Aren Wood, Angie Dight, Sarah Watt, and last but not least, the panto’s youngest ever lightingoperator,ten-year- old Owen Davison, making the show intergenerational in every aspect.
