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Interviews
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David Lee - The Panto Man Peter Lathan talks to David Lee, director of Pantoni Pantomimes, at Durham's Gala Theatre at the media launch of the 2005-6 panto, Jack and the Beanstalk. Why, I asked, pantomime? What led David Lee to become so involved in panto that his company now produces pantos for six venues and provides sets and costumes for others? It all started when he was four. "I was a lively boy, never still," he explained, "and I was taken to an amateur production of Dick Whittington. I sat absolutely captivated throughout. I think it was the first time my grandmother had ever seen me still! So they took me to a professional show, and that was it: I was hooked!" He was fortunate enough to see many of the famous pantos by Francis Laidler at the Bradford Alhambra and they, he said, had a major effect on the way he perceives pantomime. "The book and the story are central," he says. "You can't add things to the story or - even worse! - miss something out. That's the sure way of upsetting the kids. If there's something missing, they'll complain. That's why we have a climbable beanstalk, a hen that lays gold eggs and a giant that falls from the sky." He's been producing pantos for 27 years and has done over a hundred in that time. I suggested that Pantoni is a kind of mid-scale Qdos and he laughed. "In terms of the size of the theatres we work in, that's possibly the case," he replied, "but not in terms of quality. We aim to produce no. 1 quality. "We've done Yeovil for the last nineteen years and play to 96% houses. That is the kind of quality we aim to produce." I wondered whether they use the same script every time a particular panto is produced. "There's a stock book, which is the basis of the show, but it gets rewritten every year because each venue is different and the audiences like different things. Doncaster is keen on slapstick and "in your face" comedy but Durham, although it loves comedy, likes to have more musical elements. "And we also like to have at least one leading character from the area in which we're playing. At Durham this year, for example, we've got Paul Hartley (playing Fleshcreep) for the third time and Kirsti McDonagh (Princess) for the second. When I am writing, I use Paul to help me localise the book. And I work in the same way with the other five shows." Pantoni produces all its own sets and costumes - "We've got over 6,000 costumes and fourteen sets" - and likes to have live music. "Cost is a major factor, so we have a band of two, but we also bring brass players into the studio to record the music for the show, which we mix with the live output." In fact, he is very concerned about cost - and cost, of course, is why the big special effects of a previous age are no longer used, even in large venues, and why choruses (indeed, casts in general) are smaller than they used to be. "Panto should be affordable for families," he insists, "but the cost of stars for the bigger shows is far too high. "If ticket prices are £30 a head, many families simply cannot afford them, and that defeats the whole purpose of pantomime!"
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