Summer Panto Chaos is coming to Chipping Norton Theatre

Down the years, many people must have pushed their prams along Spring Street in Chipping Norton.

But it was Tamara and John Malcolm who saw the For Sale sign overhead when they passed Spring Street’s old Salvation Army citadel with their pram. “We’re going to buy that building, and turn it into a theatre,” they decided. Tamara takes up the story:

“It had always been a running gag between us: ‘We’ll have our tea, and after that we’ll build a theatre!’ So we went and saw the owner, and said: ‘How much?’ He wanted £6,500, and told us he had a buyer who was going to turn the place into a plastics factory. But it was still up for sale months later. So I phoned a very rich friend of mine, who dealt in property at the time, and said: ‘Mickey Mouse – that was what we always called him – you’re going to buy us a theatre tonight”. He bought the building, and gave us six months to find the money. On my daughter’s first birthday, November 17, 1973, we had our first cake stall in the Market Place, and started raising money from there.”

As Tamara is the first to admit, the whole project was helped by buckets of luck — to use her own phrase. When it came to applying for planning permission, for instance, West Oxfordshire District Council had only just been formed. “If they hadn’t been in such a muddle, there is no way they would have given permission. The idea you could have a theatre joined up to houses in a residential street, with no proper vehicle access, and no parking – it was just nonsense!”

But permission was granted, and work got under way. Eight volunteers shifted 42 tons of stone and earth out of the stage area, and six more reroofed the theatre with 18 tons of soundproofing material. Once opened, the theatre became famous for its annual pantomime, which went on to celebrate its 40th anniversary with 79 performances of Cinderella last year — the first Chippy panto, with a run of just four performances, was staged in the Town Hall the year before the theatre was ready. The show has become a national phenomenon — no other town the size of Chipping Norton has produced its own professional panto every year for so long.

The site the Malcolms bought in 1973

Now the Theatre has reached its own 40th birthday, and as part of the celebrations it’s staging what’s described as: “The silliest, most suicidal feat of daring ever attempted in the history of panto — to write, rehearse, and perform a 60-minute pantomime within a single 48 hour period”. Called Summer Panto Chaos, the show will rely heavily on the talents of many Chippy panto favourites, among them musical director Peter Pontzen.

“I think the idea is great fun — and very frightening,” Peter laughs. “My first involvement will be at 4pm on July 3, and the first performance will be exactly 48 hours later. I don’t know how many people will be writing the music, or the lyrics. I only know I will write some of the music — I don’t think I could write it all, because there’s got to be some rehearsal time as well. I hope that if we get through the first performance, the others will be less frightening!”

But hopefully experience will calm Peter’s nerves, as his Chippy panto pedigree goes back a long way.

“The first one was in 1979. Libby [Peter’s wife] and I had done our music hall show at Chippy several times by then. Libby was cast as principal boy, and I was musical director. Then it was discovered that Libby was becoming visibly pregnant, so the casting had to be changed at the last minute, and she became the fairy godmother instead.”

And Peter’s most abiding Chippy panto memory so far?

“The piano has usually been at the front of the auditorium, vertically below the edge of the balcony. Sitting at the piano, on many occasions I’ve found that my bald head is ideal for kids who want to drop their sweet wrappers on to a live target, especially while I’m playing a tune!”

Summer Panto Chaos
The Theatre, Chipping Norton
July 5 and 6
Tickets: 01608 642350 or chippingnortontheatre.com