The Pantomime season is over for another year, the curtains returned to their bags for storage except the one we managed to rip, the flats are stored against the wall, the backdrops rolled and locked off on their poles, the lights are dimmed and the main curtain drawn on the closing number, praise the Lord for that, now I can start living a sort of normal life again. Lots of work and four performances later it is all finished so soon. Our players were all well prepared, rehearsed and performed really well, an object lesson for the Ashes tour on preparation for the task ahead. You can never get too much practice.

The beginning of November saw 35 members gather for casting, a bit like preseason, some with preconceived ideas about how good they were and what roles they should have, others worried as to how they would cope with the season ahead. The Dame/Captain was selected very early on. Not many would cast a promising young black rugby player in this role. He plays for one of the major London clubs junior sections and was forever turning up at weekend rehearsals covered in mud either having been training or playing in a match beforehand. I will not name his club, as  his colleagues are unaware of his secret life in high heels and a dress, it wouldn’t suit his image in the front row if they ever found out !

In Panto the actors are like batsmen all flash and showy but it is your singers that get you through the season in the way that bowlers do. They are the bedrock of any good show and can keep an audience by the display they give alone, a strong vocal range being as good as a double wicket maiden. By Christmas we had had a couple of “retirements”, not due to physical or mental strain but due to the people not being able to commit to the intense rehearsal schedule between Christmas and New Year. Some of us were fitting in a full days work, rehearsals and then tech work on the stage so those who did drop out were viewed as lightweights never liable to have got a trot in the first team anyway.

The younger members of the cast are like junior cricketers on a development programme. Those who have done one season are easy to spot from those whose first year it is, they have a way about them that says we can do this and the intense training makes them into really strong team players. They become stronger performers and some need to be held back or they will peak too early for the season which is not what we set out to achieve. Those who thought themselves special often at this time find things tough as they have not really bothered to learn their stuff and can see the youngsters pressing them to do well.

The tightness of the rehearsal schedule means that any problems we have can cause major worries for the run. A ripped curtain in the week between Christmas and New Year saw me out with the tent thread as the place I would have got it repaired was closed for the holiday period. The death of a senior actors grandmother and the directors mother around the same time put pressure on everyone, the actor dropped out as the funeral was to be in the New Year, the director arranged the funeral for the 8^th of January, the day I type this report, and got on with the show. Being a Church of England vicar means he has far more experience of this than the young actor whose Gran passed away.

In fact the vicar was so into doing the show that he changed three sets with a week to go to the show , now that did keep us lads backstage on our toes !

The performances were similar to a lot of Middlesex games last season, Day one, a bit flat in front of an audience who seemed to want to be somewhere else. Day two a more solid showing. Day three better in the afternoon session (matinee) and then day four the final evening saw the best show of the lot with good performances all round. But unlike a county game, we played to nearly full houses every night, which was good for the egos and more importantly earned a lot of money for charity.

Having now done four years unpaid Stage Management I feel it is time to announce my retirement from International Show business. I feel I should commit more time to my family and let the younger players take over the solid company we have built up.

To sum up Panto is rather like cricket , it’s over four days/performances, people under/over perform and at the end of it all the public are never quite sure what they are going to get as a result of the work put into it. With one of our main performers only two weeks from fitness we look forward to next season in the same way Middlesex do, things can only get better.