The Yorkshire pantomimes keeping hard-hit theatres going this Christmas

Now head of communications and programme at Theatre Royal Wakefield, she attended a performance of Cinderella featuring comedian Don Maclean at the very same venue after it had reopened in the 1980s.

“That wonderful live theatre on stage, I didn’t know what that was until I went to the pantomime,” she says.

“So I think it’s just important to reinforce that we understand that, whilst panto is important to us as an organisation throughout the year, we also understand how important it is to every young person who comes and sees that magic for the first time.”

This is the sort of experience theatres up and down the country are hoping to showcase during the seasonal schedule.

If anyone knows the answer to that, it’s Berwick Kaler, York’s veteran pantomime dame who’s thought to be the longest-serving in the country.

Having spent decades at York Theatre Royal, Berwick, 75, has come out of a brief retirement to tread the boards at the Grand Opera House in Dick Turpin Rides Again. And on the subject of pantomime, he’s effervescent. “No one can train you for this,” he says. “If you look at pantomime, it’s never mentioned in a drama school. It’s just something natural within (the actors) – their personalities hit the back of the stalls. It’s something you can’t define.

“You cannot go on a pantomime stage and not give energy. You have to be brilliant at timing. You have to give the most energetic performance – it’s over the top, but it’s real.”

Traditionally, part of Sunderland-born Berwick’s act has been to throw Wagon Wheels into the audience and hand out bottles of Newcastle Brown ale. But he is worried about the effect that Covid-19 restrictions will have on audience participation and laments that the wearing of masks means he cannot see the faces of crowd members. “Two and a half months ago we didn’t even know if we were going to do a show,” he says.

“Every theatre in the country is going to be damaged if there’s a lockdown. And I’m not sure they are all going to recover because it’s been a very bad time for theatre.”

He adds: “I just hope that people, if they’ve got the vaccinations, they will get through the door and forget about everything –I just want to give people a laugh, take them away.”

As a testament to their popularity, Berwick says that during his time there have been women who have gone into labour during the shows.

“The mothers booked the pantomime and were not going to miss it for anything,” he says.

He also recalls a couple who got married one morning and went straight from the ceremony, in full wedding dress, to the matinee performance.

“People matter,” he says, “and we’ve always done this with public in mind.”

Though audiences can still attend theatres, subject to a Parliamentary vote yesterday, so-called vaccine passports would be required for all entering such venues.

In Leeds, the City Varieties Music Hall is staging its annual rock ‘n’ roll panto – this time it’s Sleeping Beauty – while the Grand is hosting Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Amy Sanderson, head of communications at Leeds Heritage Theatres, which runs the venues, says: “Christmas is always our very busy time of year. Particularly at the City Varieties, our Christmas pantomime brings in a big chunk of our income for that venue for the whole year.

“At Leeds Grand Theatre, it’s not quite so critical in terms of income, but it it’s a really important time of our year.”

Audience confidence has been affected during the “to-ing and fro-ing” of the pandemic, she says, but venues are hoping to attract people back to what, for many people, is a festive family tradition. However, the new restrictions coming in from last week was “a bit of a blow” for the venues, she says.

“Not so much the announcement about masks, but we’d really started in the middle of November to see sales for our Christmas shows picking up and probably later than we’d usually hope for. We were starting to think, ‘actually, this is going to be okay’. And then it was the announcements around Omicron and a new variant and that uncertainty just starting to creep in for people. We saw things start to slow down just as we would normally hope that they’d really ramp up.”

People are still buying tickets though, and want to attend, she says.

“I think there’s a sort of sense of ‘oh, well, let’s just try and have a great Christmas’ after last year was such a washout for so many people.”

That’s important for venues because it can give younger audience members their first taste of live performance.

“I think that’s absolutely vital to us and we are really well aware of that, particularly with venues being such big heritage buildings. We get people that came to see their first panto, either the Grand – because it did do panto a long time ago – or the City Varieties and there’s a real sense of: these are the places that people come for their first experience and you go to the City Varieties because granny used to go and then parents (bring their children)...so it’s whole generations of families.”

That kind of association, in turn, helps venues to build relationships with the community.

Kealey at Theatre Royal Wakefield, where people can see Beauty and the Beast, says: “It’s not to be underestimated at all, how important it is in the community – it brings people together.

We have lots of schools who attend every year, and some of the children that come with school wouldn’t have been able to come otherwise. It’s such a crucial part of our role within the district to be able to provide that. But the families that come independently outside of the school setting, they really feel like they have ownership of it. It’s their panto – it’s Wakefield’s very own panto.

“It’s their Christmas, it’s part of their tradition, it’s part of what they make room for in their schedule...And so we are very proud to be that for them. We consider that an really important role and we take it very seriously.”

Throughout the year, the Theatre Royal is available for local dance schools, amateur dramatics societies and music theatre groups. She says: “From all the different angles we represent the community, from the people that just want to come and watch and have a great night out to the people that actually want to get up on stage and take part in it, but not as their main job.

"So we’re there for everybody.”

Dan Bates, Chief Executive of Sheffield Theatres, says: "Christmas is a vital time for us all – we offer three different productions, totalling around 100 performances. The festive period is a great time of joy for everyone involved and this year it has been all the more important for us to offer our audiences such much needed cheer. The income is a vital part of our year and it is important that we keep going for as long as we can.

"The safety of our audiences, cast and staff has been our top priority all along. We introduced mask wearing one week before it became mandatory and we had a lot of very positive comments from our audiences. As advice has changed some of our audiences have amended their bookings, opting to come later. It is no doubt a really challenging time and everyone has to make their own choices. We are doing everything we can to continue and there is still a huge number of people that want to come and are impressed with the safety measures we have in place."

Pantomime itself is a cause for celebration, though.

"It is the huge sense of joy. As soon as audiences meet the Dame (Damian Williams) the show takes off and it is smiles all round. Everyone loves to join in and participate and what is brilliant about panto is that it is so much fun for all the family. For many people going to the theatre at Christmas is a family tradition and it might be a once a year treat - so it is important that we get it right!"