Panto-time

The panto at the Gordon Craig is renowned as one of the best in the area, but it wouldn't be the same without the equally revered Paul Laidlaw!

The cast of Jack and the Beanstalk 2008

Paul is well known for playing the dame in the Stevenage panto, where his slender pins are legendary and his glamorous costumes are possibly the envy of women everywhere!

After playing an Ugly Sister in Cinderella last Christmas, this year sees him returning to the traditional loveable panto dame character as he takes on the mantle of Dame Trot in Jack and the Beanstalk.

A glutton for punishment, he's also directing the whole shebang, which this year stars David Spinx (Keith Miller in EastEnders) as Fleshcreep and Neighbours' Ben Nicholas (Stingray) as Jack.

He told us more about it all:

Another year, and it’s another panto with Paul Laidlaw – how many is it now?

Paul: Well, it’s 20 years since I first did pantomime here, but I wasn’t here for about four or five years so this is probably about my 15th!

You’re normally the Dame and are renowned for it! Last year you were an Ugly Sister and this year it’s Dame Trot, so you’re back to a more traditional dame now?

Paul: Absolutely, Ugly Sister is not a dame at all and shouldn’t be. An Ugly Sister is a baddie, like King Rat. Funny hopefully, but definitely a baddie and this [Dame Trot] is lovable mum, funny and jolly.

Paul Laidlaw

And do you prefer that?

Paul: Yes, by far. The only reason I played Ugly Sister is because there’s not a dame in Cinderella. I had great fun doing it but I prefer this.

Dame Trot is funny and she’s lovable and she cares about her son. And the thing about dames is that little boys can say things to her that they’d never dare say to their real mum and get a laugh out of it – that’s half the fun of it. So I’m looking forward to working with Ben [Nicholas] on that because Ben’s a cheeky little boy!

You’re also renowned for showing your legs quite a lot?

Paul: Not a LOT! Maybe once per show!

But there will be opportunities in this for a short costume?!

Paul: I would think so! It’s very likely – I think I’d probably get letters in the press if I didn’t so I suspect I’m going to have to!

And the rest of your costumes will be the usual outrageous one with many changes?

Paul: Yes – there will be a lot of changes and they will be outrageous, very colourful and jokey. They will be spectacular!

Do you ever get to go back to your dressing room during a show or are all your changes done in the wings?

Paul: There’s a quick change room at stage level because there’s no time to get back to the dressing room! Every second you’re not on the set you’re changing or putting a new wig on – it’s all very fast!

Have you ever had any costume disasters?

Paul: Not during a run no! We’ve seen a costume that’s been designed and we’ve said that just won’t work. The worst thing that really can happen in a run is if you don’t make the change, but up until now I’ve had very good dressers, thank goodness! If a zip sticks you’re in trouble but they always carry a lead pencil with them which apparently releases the zip somehow – something to do with the graphite! But now that you’ve said that of course, they’ll all go wrong!

I’ve never missed an entrance with a costume but I have come on and faced an audience with all the back undone – that’s happened once!

But that’s part of the fun surely?!

Paul: No – believe me that’s not fun! It’s dangerous because you think what’s going to fall out next!

You could incorporate that I guess?

Paul: You could, but I really don’t’ approve of that. I think that things should not go wrong – things should be right!

Paul as the Wicked Queen in Snow White!

But in panto there’s a lot of scope for making things look as though they’ve gone wrong – but it’s actually all rehearsed isn’t it?

Paul: That’s slightly different yes. If you do something that has gone wrong, that the audience will take as a joke, that’s fine but I don’t think that you should short change an audience by messing about so that things go wrong of their own accord. Things do, like in any job, but it’s your job to either cover it up or let the audience in on the joke!

You’re directing the show as well this year. How do you find doing both? Do you enjoy the dual role?

Paul: I love doing both, I’ve learned over the years how to do it, you’ve just got to divide your brain down the middle, but the danger is that you forget to direct yourself because you’re so busy looking at everybody else. I think I’ve cracked that one now though, I’ve learned how to do that!

But the lovely thing about directing yourself is that you don’t have anybody else interfering. Of course you talk to your colleagues and say I think I’m going to do this but somebody ultimately has to take charge and it’s quite nice to do that. And also I’ve been doing it for so long that it happens quite easily now and it makes the production process quite gentle for everybody.

So what are your key elements for a panto?

Paul: Spectacle, comedy, music and a lot of jokes. And, above all, tradition. Keep to a proper pantomime with a beginning, a middle and an end, the story must flow, you can’t just put things in for the sake of “this would be fun” – it’s got to have something to do with what the story’s about.

So with Jack and the Beanstalk you keep to the actual story of it, there’s no bringing in strange characters from the TV?

Paul: No – we have people from the TV but they are playing characters. We’d be very foolish not to mention EastEnders and Neighbours during the course of it, because that’s where our stars are from, but that’s not the same as something like Spiderman! Well – you can bring in an extraneous character like that, providing there’s a reason for it. For example, if you need to bring in someone to fight the giant, you could bring in Spiderman but to have him walk on for the sake of it, wouldn’t be right.

With pantomime you’ve got to keep to the tradition in the shape of the original story but you have to have the freedom to bring in other elements – topical elements that people will relate to.

So there’s a fine kind of balance between tradition and topicality?

Paul: Absolutely. We feel the same way about the music, there should be modern pop songs in it, but there’s also room for show songs and old fashioned songs. It should be a complete mix of music and it’s the same with everything else.

You rehearse just ten days before you open, that must be quite frantic?

Paul: We work pretty much a 12 hour day – I tend to be in from 10 in the morning until 10 at night for ten days!

It must be an amazing time?!

Paul: It’s extraordinary. In terms of the actors they only have about five days to do the plotting, that is learn their lines and where they stand and all the comedy, because the second set of five days is purely technical. That means getting it all onto the set and getting all the electronics and projection working and all the musicians mixed in so really the actors have to do it in a week.

Then you have a ten week run so you must form quite a bond as a company?

Paul: Oh absolutely, you have to. I’ve always said that the casting of a show that runs this length is as much about people who want to get on with each other as being able to do the job because you are together all day, every day.

Does it take a long time to recover afterwards?

Paul: Well, I’ve always gone straight into something else – I always call it “roll off next essay”, you finish, you get very tearful, say goodbye and say “talk to you soon” and then 48 hours later you’re at the first day of rehearsal for something completely different and start on that!

So what is it about the Stevenage panto, because it’s quite special isn’t it?

Paul: It is, it’s one of the few places that I know in the country that still really gets it right in terms of tradition. Bob Bustance, who runs the theatre, has always said that he doesn’t want a non-traditional panto because people like traditional pantomime. They like to know that they are going to come to a show that has all the right elements, it isn’t going to be filthy, and it isn’t going to have extraneous pop songs and people in it just for the sake of it. This is proper big family entertainment with lots of spectacle, lots of comedy and lots to look at and I think people like that!

Jack and the Beanstalk is on at the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage from Saturday 29 November 2008 to Sunday 25 January 2009.