Beauty and the Beast: Theatre, Chipping Norton (From The Oxford Times)

Beauty and the Beast: Theatre, Chipping Norton

9:50am Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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What does Father Christmas do during the summer? The same question could apply to pantomime characters like Idle Jack, Wishee Washee, Widow Twankey, Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters, and Dick Whittington’s Cat. They all totally vanish from sight.

But behind the panto scenes, brains buzz, imaginations whirr, and jokes are polished. Take Ben Crocker, for instance, who’s moved straight from directing an outdoor production of Othello at the Ludlow Festival to writing this year’s panto for The Theatre, Chipping Norton — a new production of Beauty and the Beast.

“I’m quite used to it,” Ben explained as we sat overlooking Chipping Norton’s bustling market square on a warm summer’s day. “It’s a world that I enjoy, although it does seem slightly bizarre to be sitting here in the sunshine, rather than in the middle of the winter, chipping [ouch, is that a panto joke in the making?] ice off my car.

No doubt it’s easier for Ben to think about Christmas shows in August than it is for most of us, because panto has always been part of his life.

“I come from a pantomime family. My father wrote pantos for many years, so it’s in the blood. I saw my first panto when I was three. I remember enjoying it — although apparently I was hiding under my seat when the Demon came on. I also remember being introduced to the Dame after the show, and being very surprised that it was actually a man. But I wasn’t disillusioned by the discovery. I used to stage my dad’s pantos when I was artistic director of the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, but after a few years I thought it would be fun to start writing my own.”

But surely telling dad that he was being replaced can’t have been easy: how, I asked Ben, did he put this over?

“We’d done Dick Whittington before, so we needed a new text this time around!”

There are few, if any, other towns as small as Chipping Norton anywhere in the country that mount their own professional panto every year. The Chippy panto has become a national institution, and down the years more and more weeks have been added to the run of each show. It is truly a big deal, and The Theatre’s director, John Terry, has to think about it all year round.

“As soon as you’ve had the opening night for a panto, you have to start thinking about the next one. So in November, in our case, you’re thinking what you’d like to repeat, what you’d like to do better, what you’d like to change for the following year, who you want to work with again. That’s particularly true for us, because the panto is a huge part of our programme.

“This year almost 2,000 actors have applied to take part, so it has taken several weeks just to go through the CV’s.

“But you get to know what you’re looking for — this is a small town to live in for several months, and that doesn’t suit some people. Also, with 213 seats, we can’t compete with the sort of money that theatres with over 1,000 seats can offer. But it’s a very special place to work — Chipping Norton is one of the most snowbound towns in the whole of England, so that’s all part of it!”

Growing up at the other end of the county in south Oxfordshire, John Terry has experience in several areas of professional theatre, including work as a director. But, he confessed: “I had no panto experience whatsoever before I directed last year’s show. Some of my predecessors directed the panto, and some didn’t. I spent my first year or 18 months here contemplating whether I would, or not. But I’ve discovered that the panto is a show that is incredibly democratic: it reaches across classes and ages. That’s exciting.”

But as director of both the panto and The Theatre itself, the buck stops in only one place — with John Terry himself. “So what are you like on opening night?” I asked.

“I’m an absolute nightmare, totally unbearable. Like quite a few directors, I don’t really enjoy watching my own performances. I would much rather sit in my office, and listen to the show relayed through a loudspeaker: I’d turn it up when I heard people laughing or clapping.

“But when it goes well, there’s a huge satisfaction in seeing both children and adults reacting as they should, and laughing themselves silly.”

Beauty and the Beast runs at The Theatre, Chipping Norton from November 23 to January 8. Booking is already open on 01608 642350 or by email at boxoffice@ chippingnortontheatre.com