THE festive season is upon us and, for most playhouses in Scotland, the sound of sleigh bells ushers in the busiest period in the theatre calendar. From Ayr to Aberdeen, Paisley to Perth, the nation’s theatres are preparing to welcome audiences of all ages who are in search of a bit of Christmas cheer.
There are few actors who know more about putting on a Yuletide show than Darren Brownlie. The multi-talented actor, dancer and singer is currently embarking on his fourth stint in Scotland’s biggest pantomime at Glasgow’s King’s Theatre.
He’s playing the role of Tink the fairy in Peter Pan (King’s Theatre, Glasgow, until January 5) alongside the leading lady of Scottish pantomime Elaine C Smith. Audiences can expect a performance that is brilliantly acted, wonderfully danced, very funny and, no doubt, camp as Christmas itself.
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Although he’s best known to TV viewers as Mickey Duffy in the BBC Scotland soap opera River City, Brownlie has been treading the boards since he was a wee lad. A member of Paisley’s acclaimed youth theatre company PACE, his talents led to him performing in the King’s, Glasgow pantomime while he was still in primary school.
He has been performing in pantos – firstly as a dancer, later in lead roles – every year since. There have been stints as a dancer in pantomimes in various English towns and a lengthy residency in the pastiche pantos at Glasgow’s Tron’s Theatre (which are created by his irrepressible friend, the writer, director and actor Johnny McKnight).
There was also a year in the big pantomime at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, before he was taken on as a headliner at the Glasgow King’s. Was it something of a culture shock, I wonder, for Brownlie when he made the move from being a lead performer in the Tron’s festive shows to becoming one of the principal players in the biggest show in the Scottish pantosphere?
“The hardest thing to get used to,” he explains, “was the length of time we get to rehearse the big pantomimes. At the Tron, we would have four weeks of rehearsal in the room. Then it would go into production, with the technical rehearsal and the dress rehearsal in week five.”
By contrast, he says, the Glasgow King’s panto is ready for its dress rehearsal in little over a fortnight.
The actor admits that the divergent working methods at the Tron and the King’s “took a bit of getting used to”. He knows from his considerable experience that these contrasting experiences reflect the differences between the subsidised theatre sector and commercial theatre.
Although it is desperately underfunded, the Tron is still part of the subsidised theatre sector. The King’s panto, which is staged by the massive producer Crossroads Pantomimes, is a different kettle of fish. You will find the name of Crossroads on the posters for many of the UK’s biggest pantos, from Aberdeen to Wimbledon.
At the Glasgow King’s, Brownlie tells me, he and his co-stars Smith and Johnny Mack don’t have “the luxury of time” that he was used to at the Tron. However, the actor expresses himself impressed by the production methods at the King’s.
“Crossroads has got it down to a tee,” he says. “They’re really fastidious with their timings and things like that.”
In particular, he is amazed by the way in which Crossroads builds its productions, with the various aspects of the show being rehearsed simultaneously in different rooms. “You’ve got the dancers rehearsing in one room, the musical director will be going over the songs in another room, then we [the lead actors] will be rehearsing in another. You don’t actually see the full show in its totality until the end of the rehearsal process.”
Like any audience member, Brownlie is impressed both by the resources Crossroads makes available for the King’s pantomime and by the spectacular effects that are made possible by the Glasgow playhouse’s large stage.
“At the King’s we’ve got huge effects,” he says. “This year, (spoiler alert!) we’ve got flying and there’s a crocodile coming out over the audience.”
Early in his pantomime career, when he was a dancer in Christmas shows, Brownlie performed in shows in English towns like Basingstoke and Mansfield. Does he, I wonder, agree with those who believe that Scottish pantomime – which is so rooted in the Caledonian music hall tradition – is quite distinct from its counterpart south of the Border?
“Oh God, yeah!” he says. “If you compare Glasgow with Bournemouth, for example, they’re worlds apart.
“What’s really great about our director [at the Glasgow King’s] Kathryn Harrison is that she knows that. We’ll be in rehearsal and she’ll say, ‘no, that won’t wash up here, we need to change it’.
“She’s from Northern Ireland. Maybe her view of these things is informed by the similarities between Scotland and Northern Ireland.”
It’s hard to disagree with the actor’s view of the distinctiveness of Celtic, as opposed to English, pantomime. There’s no doubting some of the tremendous talent on the seasonal stage down south – who wouldn’t want a ticket to see Julian Clary in Robin Hood at the London Palladium, for example?
However, there is a tendency in English panto to try to entice audiences by casting leads who are, first and foremost, famous off the telly. For instance, Beauty And The Beast at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton has celebrity bodybuilder Giant (aka Jamie Christian-Johal) from the BBC show Gladiators as its headline performer, while the poster for Peter Pan in Aylesbury boasts that it stars Bradley Riches from Celebrity Big Brother 2024.
Scottish audiences expect something different. For sure, the likes of Smith, Aberdeen pantomime dame Alan McHugh and Brownlie himself have their TV gigs, but audiences flock to their shows because they know they will deliver the panto goods.
For his part, Brownlie agrees that even in the third decade of the 21st century, Scottish pantomime audiences still demand lead performances that stand in the music hall tradition of great panto performers from the past, such as Jack Milroy, Rikki Fulton, Stanley Baxter, Gerard Kelly and The Krankies.
“Whether the young team know it or not,” he suggests, the Scottish music hall tradition “is what they’re into”.
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Younger audience members “have different cultural terms of reference” from their parents and grandparents, Brownlie says. They may never have seen the heroes of Scottish pantomimes past, but “they still come wanting to be wowed, first and foremost, and they still want to be entertained by the words that you’re saying”.
That is most definitely the case at Brownlie’s old haunt, the Tron Theatre. There the extraordinary McKnight is not only the wordsmith of the tongue-in-cheek pastiche panto, but also its director and its pantomime dame.
This year, the theatre is presenting the irreverent (and flatulent) Peter Panto & The Incredible Stinkerbell (Tron Theatre, Glasgow, until January 5) (see review on pages 10 and 11).
If the Tron show is a knowing send-up of pantomime tropes, Scottish theatre has more traditional pantos than you can chuck a mince pie at. Take Cinderella (Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, until December 31) for instance.
The capital city’s traditional big stage panto is currently in its temporary home of the beautiful Festival Theatre on Nicolson Street (while its natural habitat, the Edinburgh King’s Theatre, undergoes essential renovation work). What hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that beloved veteran dame Allan Stewart, boo-inducing baddie Grant Stott and co are presenting a show that stands proudly in the Scottish music hall tradition.
The same is true of Jack And The Beanstalk (His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, until January 5), in which the Granite City’s dame extraordinaire Alan McHugh is joined by Greg McHugh (no relation), aka Gary: Tank Commander. Indeed, there are dames aplenty across the country, ranging from the brilliant Barrie Hunter in Mother Goose (Perth Theatre, until December 31), to the always splendid Alan Steele in Beauty And The Beast (Byre Theatre, St Andrews, until December 31) and the tremendous Jimmy Chisholm in another Jack and the Beanstalk (Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, until December 31).
If you haven’t had enough of Jack – or, indeed, beanstalks – you might want to get yourself along to Jack And The Beanstalk (Eden Court, Inverness, December 4 to January 5). Alternatively, you might be up for a gander (geddit?) at Mother Goose (Gaiety Theatre, Ayr, until January 4) or the Stirlingshire panto (also penned by Johnny McKnight) Snow White (Macrobert Arts Centre, University of Stirling, until December 31).
Christmas theatre in Scotland isn’t all about pantomimes, however. The country also has a rich tradition of family theatre for the Yuletide season.
Historically, Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre has led the field where such shows are concerned. However, the continued, devastating closure of the Gorbals playhouse (the supposedly two-year redevelopment of which is about to go into its eighth year) has robbed thousands of children and their associated adults of the pleasure of the Citz’s typically stylish festive fare.
All of which puts the onus on the capital’s great repertory theatre and its Christmas offering Treasure Island (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until January 4). Based, of course, upon the adventure novel by one of Edinburgh’s most famous sons, Robert Louis Stevenson, the show boasts an adaptation by writer Duncan McLean and direction by acclaimed theatre-maker Wils Wilson.
Not to be outdone, the City of Discovery’s celebrated theatre reprises its production of Oor Wullie: The Musical (Dundee Rep, until December 30). Full disclosure, I thought the show was a mixed bag (an awkwardly conceived script, but with great songs) when it premiered five years ago.
However, this stage adaptation of the iconic strip cartoon seems to have been popular enough to prompt the Rep to bring it back for another winter outing.
That, I’m sure you’ll agree, is a lot of festive fun for the family. However, it does leave open the question of what to do if you’re looking for Christmas theatre for little children.
Pre-school weans are, it has to be said, not best served by our theatre sector. However, this winter there are a few shows aimed at the under-fives.
One that is guaranteed to delight the little ones is Frozen Charlotte theatre company’s Too Many Penguins? (touring, December 3-23). Appearing at Lyth Arts Centre (December 3-7), Lossiemouth Town Hall (December 11-14) and Eden Court, Inverness (December 17-23), the show has a long and illustrious track record.
Way back in 2012, my fellow Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland judges and I celebrated this show with the annual award for Best Show for Children and Young people. Reviewing the production for this newspaper’s forerunner the Sunday Herald, I wrote: “The show, in which [polar bear] Mr Polaro is inundated with penguins … is a charmingly off-beat piece of theatre for children aged one to four.”
The company says that “hand-making more than 100 penguins [for the show] was completely worth it!” More than a decade of success for the show suggests that they are right.
If you’re not within striking distance of the Highland venues that the penguins will be visiting, you might want to take your little ones to Santa’s Magical Lighthouse (Macrobert Arts Centre, University of Stirling, December 3-31). The show presents the tale of Santa’s little helpers Bailey and Boo.
Can they fix Santa’s lighthouse in time to guide him home following his efforts delivering presents? Written by musical theatre specialist Andy McGregor, the piece is an interactive, musical adventure for children aged five and under.
Last, but by absolutely no means least, Scottish Ballet revives its gorgeous production of The Nutcracker (touring December 6 to February 8). Opening at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow (December 6-30), the production tours to the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh (January 8-18), Eden Court, Inverness (January 22-25), His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen (January 29 to February 1) and Theatre Royal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (February 6-8).
Inspired by the 1973 choreography by the company’s founder Peter Darrell and accompanying the famous and glorious musical score by Tchaikovsky, this ballet is an absolutely sumptuous festive treat.
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