The Helix Panto is Born

In 2008 my good friend Claire Tighe asked would I be interested in writing a professional Panto for her company Theatreworx. Up to that point we had only worked together in the Panto-sphere with our local Musical Society - Leixlip Musical & Variety Group. My experience of professional Panto’s were limited to acting in them having been cast in several productions. Namely St. Anthony’s Theatre on Merchant’s Quay, Dublin and the old lady of South King Street herself - the Gaiety. But writing and directing a pro Panto is a completely different story than having to just worry about lines to learn, songs to sing and dance routines to…well, stumble through!

The interesting thing about the Summer of 2008 is that I had auditioned again for the Gaiety. The role of Dandini in Cinderella was up for grabs and low and behold I was offered the part! But then came Claire with her hair-brained idea of producing a professional Panto in the already saturated Panto market of Dublin at DCU’s Helix Theatre… during a recession! What could possibly go wrong?!

Did I mention it was during a recession?!

Sleeping Beauty hit the stage that Christmas with a “pffft” rather than a “BANG!” There were times the talented cast were playing to just 30 people in the audience. But for our first foray into the professional Panto market it wasn’t a bad effort. We were ridiculously proud but somewhat deflated with the lack of audience. Lessons were learned and thankfully Claire had a 5 year plan. Otherwise we would have been done in 5 minutes!

Karl Harpur is the Creative Director at MerryVille Productions and has been writing for the Helix Panto since 2008.

If you are interested in producing one of Karl’s scripts visit: Panto Scripts