12 Dec 2024
Laura Bill meets the cast of Cinderella, this year’s St Albans pantomime, as they prepare for opening night on December 12…
Samantha Womack is sitting backstage in the kitchen area of the Alban Arena with Ian Kirkby and a few dancers. A dog barks and I notice how realistic it is, because it was a real dog. Although I’m sure a bark isn’t too much for these acting professionals. Oh no it isn’t. (Had to get that in. Obligatory obvs.)
Otto is a 13-year-old Yorkshire terrier Sam and her partner, Emmerdale actor Oliver Farnworth, rescued from the Valencian floods last month.
I managed to get in a few snuggles with him. He looks like the happiest dog in the world with his woolly Christmas jumper on and his new doting mum and dad.
Clad in full fairy princess regalia, Samantha has taken a break from rehearsals to grab a cup of tea, with Otto snuggling up on the hem of her dress (don’t tell the costume department!).
She’s looking forward to a somewhat different Christmas this year: “We’re travelling in a camper van at the moment, so we’ll either do it really cheap in the van on the cooker, or we’ll find a really nice little pub in the Cotswolds and eat a roast there.”
She’s been busy practicing some of the more difficult parts of her script: “The rhyming couplets are a bit of a challenge because they’re all very similar, so if you just say the wrong word for the end of the first line, you’ve almost ruined the rhyming couplets for the next three, four lines, so that’s tricky.”
I asked what she does to stay healthy as it can be a hard run through the winter and I know coughs, colds and lost voices can be a thing. “I just need my eight hours sleep a night.”
Though she now lives in Valencia, she is very familiar with St Albans as she spent years at Elstree for EastEnders. She tells me she has six dogs in total but the others are at home, adding that she loves St Albans and the local restaurants and enjoys walking her dog in Verulamium Park.
It’s Day 5 of the Cinderella rehearsals and I can feel that mix of hard work and camaraderie that make the magic happen every year.
Founding director of Evolution Paul Hendy – who writes and casts the show – is a genius at putting the right people in the right place with the right songs and lines and dances. He would be perfect at creating wedding seating plans. Or something. (Maybe stick to panto, Paul. I can’t imagine being a Seating Plan Put-togetherer is particularly lucrative or as much fun.)
And who better to put back together than the mighty Ian Kirkby and Bob Golding comedy duo? I notice the montage in their tiny dressing room when I pop in to visit. They tell me they created it out of photographs of their comedy heroes during panto in 2016 when they both had a bit of downtime.
They read me some of their script that they are still learning in a Shakespearean style – just because – and as always the rapport between them is natural and infectious.
I ask Ian how he is feeling having his almost lifelong buddy back on stage with him again: “Obviously I am delighted to have one of my dearest and best friends back alongside me, which he is, and I love him dearly.
“I’ve already had a tonne of fun in the five days we’ve been back together.”
Two dachshunds, Dudley and Beau, are about to become part of Family Golding and we have a brief chat about this. Bob’s wife Nicola is assistant stage manager this year and I can feel how much love and support is there for him after the very recent passing of his dad.
Bob said it still doesn’t feel like it has really happened and described panto as a “welcome distraction” to take his mind off things.
He tells me that the theme of this year’s Panto Day (Friday December 13) is ‘family’ which he feels is particularly apt for this show: “It’s key. We bring the families together to watch our show. We are like our own little family here between us backstage. How many genres of theatre could you take the whole family to and everybody come away having enjoyed it?”
What’s on his Christmas list? “Oh, do you know I’ve not even given it any thought, but I’d like to start a collection of single malt whiskies.
“So if anyone’s got any old full single malt whisky bottles they don’t want, that would be very handy, just leave them at the stage door!” he jokes.
As Christmas is one of his only days off during the production, he’s packing a lot in.
“We do a lot of travelling around. We start the day with Nella, our five-year-old, at Nikki’s mum and dad’s house. Then we drive to St Albans, because now my other kids are older they don’t get up before midday, and we have some drinks with them at my ex-wife’s house.
“We used to go to my mum and dad’s, but this year we’ll go back to Nikki’s parents and have Christmas dinner there at about five o’clock, and then fall asleep at seven.
“With pantomime there’s this thing called the blanket of tiredness that Mr Kirkby and I are very aware of, when you’re just completely shattered the entire time. Any time you get to sit down you generally nod off for 10-20 minutes, because we’re both over 50 now and that’s what happens!”
He’s missed some places locally since he’s been away: “I love to visit the Bishop’s Cave because I love cheese and wine. Cheese is life. Cheese and wine. Wine is life. Cheese and wine is life, and panto, and family, and love and happiness and peace. Can I lie down now, please?”
Director Dorcas Wood said: “We are thrilled to have Bob back this year. He loves the city and the St Albans audience and you can tell how much he is really looking forward to being back with Ian again.”
I find out that Dorcas’ husband Oliver Scott is in the show this year as Buttons. What is it like directing your husband?: “I think he felt the pressure to be best in class,” she says.
“He’d been learning all his lines beforehand. Our life is one big panto anyway.”
Oliver said: “We talk about panto all year round because we are both theatre-obsessed. It’s really nice to see each other at work as we usually do different shows within Evolution.”
There are groups of actors, dancers and singers in different areas of the Arena and they come together at different times. I asked Dorcas how it works.
In the morning they were on stage in the auditorium, without any lighting or sound. They start off in three teams. Dancers with choreographer Sarah Langley learning their steps, Matt Mellor the musical director goes through songs with principal actors, and then the actors start learning the ‘blocking’ with the director which is where to move and speak.
In the first few days these three things happen separately and then they stitch it together and put the actors into the dancers and the songs.
It’s all prepared and planned but it could look like chaos at the same time. I always think what a fun and also mad job it must be, working in theatre.
The dancers in particular always impress me. Random counting and movements happen super fast, they have a quick chat and then it all just works out and looks great.
“I need you, you, you!” sung in harmony with the full cast dancing on stage grabs my attention.
Interestingly, each dancer in the ensemble is an understudy for a principal actor. So they are ready to step in as Buttons or Cinderella or whoever should any emergencies arise.
“I know who it’ll fit,” somebody says, referring to the legendary glass slipper. “That lady in the second row!”
They ask the imaginary woman what her name is and it’s Laura…
George Shelley, playing Prince Charming tells me how rehearsals are going: “Amazing. I’m having the time of my life. It’s the perfect build up to Christmas.”
He reveals how he had his tonsils removed at the end of August and lost two litres of blood. He said he is really glad to be here. In the operation they accidentally cut into his arteries and he thought, “I’m not going to live another day of life not doing what I love, which is creativity and arts.”
George is excited to visit the Charter Market while he’s here and said he wants to buy some records.
Bob and Ian bring a special energy when they appear to go through their lines. We had a brief chat about his dad being in the RAF and how you mustn’t call it “the RAF” like I did but
say the letter out R…A…F, like that. I can see a tear in his eye but in the next minute, he’s dancing and messing around and you’d just never ever know.
Damian Patton – playing Dandini, the Prince’s servant – comes and talks to me. He is returning to St Albans after appearing in Jack and the Beanstalk two years ago.
He’s left behind his eight-week-old baby Roly to take part in this year’s show, but will be spending Christmas together with his family.
“Technically he’s in the panto,” he said. “There’s a memory projection near the end and he’s the baby in it!”
Despite being away from home, he’s making the most of his time in St Albans: “It’s all very festive isn’t it? I’ve been to The Saint and Sinner over the road, which is very nice, with a
lovely fire, lights everywhere and cosy armchairs and stuff. It wasn’t open last time I was here so I think I’ll spend a bit more time in there.”
Rehearsals are going well, he added: “We’re now actually putting it together with the lights and the sound and the band and it’s coming along nicely.”
As I walk back to my car I am hit by twinkling lights, busy shoppers and a festive chill in the air. I can’t help but reflect upon the mixture of joy, music, laughter and conversation I’ve just experienced and the true professionalism and talent of our pantomime cast. We really are blessed here in St Albans to have a such a great one and it really feels like a warm blanket at the end of what won’t have been an easy year for some.
