The Panto Triple Threat: Daming, Writing and Directing
Although each Dame fulfils a slightly different narrative function in her respective pantomime's plot, each shares one thing in common: she helps Robin overthrow the Sheriff and save the day.
"I’m there for comic relief more than anything else," says Pollard, "although I do get involved in the plot. I see myself as the main link between audience and stage. I get them warmed up and raring to go. As an actor I usually get cast as thwarted lovers or slightly sad characters and on telly its solicitors and vicars so panto gives me the chance to play the clown, which I love!"
Playing Dame is also Alan Taylor’s first love, even though he also writes and directs the annual Nottingham Playhouse pantomime. "I simply love performing," he tells me. Performing is also passion of Kaler’s, who has very strong ideas of what a Dame should be.
"My Dame is simply me in a frock—no makeup, no high-pitched voice," he says. "She can’t sing, she can’t dance, she can’t act, but does all three as if she can and all in the name of comedy. She has a Geordie accent which she’s convinced is a Yorkshire accent. When my Dame walks on stage she’s all woman, it’s just that she can’t convince the audience."
Kaler has been writing the York Theatre Royal pantomime for almost thirty years after he became frustrated at the state of "so-called" pantomime scripts. "These consisted basically of someone assembling an assortment of tired old corny jokes and throwing a few ‘he’s behind you’ in," Kaler tells me. "Having taken on the challenge I found just how difficult it was to write a pantomime. My first effort certainly wasn’t that good but it proved a vast improvement on the previous garbage."
Alan Taylor has written and directed the annual Nottingham Playhouse pantomime since 1984 and often writes the script in France during the summer. This approach to writing is quite different to Kaler’s, who, when I spoke to him back in November, jokingly stated "getting the script finished before opening night!" as what he was most looking forward to about the season ahead.
Both Alan Taylor and Kaler have written, directed and played Dame for many decades, but 2012 marks Pollard’s first year as a triple threat pantomime practitioner. "When offered, I leapt at the chance to direct," he tells me, but playing Dame, writing and directing can take its toll.
As Kaler explains, "My main difficulty as I enter my late sixties is attempting to keep fit. The York panto enjoys a long run until 2nd February and to play the Dame well you have to be 100% alert both mentally and physically. Pantomime requires an entirely different energy and technique in performance than in any other media. You cannot just stroll on stage and merely breathe through a microphone—it’s not what you say in panto, it’s how you work every line with every fibre in your being."
Juggling three separate, but interwoven roles is no easy task, but Alan Taylor is quick to point out that at Nottingham he has "fantastic back-up from all the technical departments which makes life so easy," sentiments echoed by Pollard. "Musical director Steve Markwick and I have worked together on all of the Greenwich pantos and he is invaluable in terms of his feeling of plot construction and musical knowledge," he says.
Although Alan Taylor, Kaler and Pollard are the engines that drive their shows, the annual York, Nottingham and Greenwich pantomime is very much a team effort.
"Thankfully, these days I co-direct with our Artistic Director Damian Cruden," says Kaler as he outlines the rehearsal process. "I normally direct the initial stages when we are in the rehearsal rooms. Damian has been known to pop his head round the door and marvel at my directing skills, then screams and does a runner… strange that! Once we transfer to the production week and move over to the theatre, Damian has sole responsibility for putting the production together and unravelling my mistakes."
Many of York, Nottingham and Greenwich's cast and creatives return to their respective theatres year after year, helping to create a strong pantomime brand with a uniquely York, Nottingham or Greenwich feel. "I surround myself with superb actors who know how I work, so we are a true ensemble with no stars or divas," explains Alan Taylor. This is all the more important considering pantomime's gruelling schedule and that cast and crew will literally be living out of each other's pockets for over two months.