Mother Goose ducks the trials of Covid

‘We haven’t had a rehearsal with everyone there for several weeks,’ said Claire Cathcart, who is co-directing this year’s production with Jodie Hicks.

‘It’s been an interesting experience,’ she said. ‘Both of us have had Covid and many of the cast have had it as well. We’ve had understudies for our understudies.’

Even so, preparations for the festive production of Mother Goose have gone ahead on schedule. The Beau Sejour Theatre stage was painted on Thursday and stage crew began constructing the set on Saturday. Full dress rehearsals involving actors, dancers and band are scheduled for tonight and Thursday and the first performance is at 2pm on Saturday, with the 14th and final show on New Year’s Day.

‘We’ve been in discussion with Public Health throughout,’ Mrs Cathcart said, ‘and we’ll continue to listen to their advice during the run. We’ve increased ventilation and mask wearing during rehearsals and everyone is now wearing a mask unless they’re on stage.’

Both directors are making their debuts in the role but they have worked together on several previous pantomime productions.

‘It’s pretty unusual for the director role to be shared but we realised we both had the same vision,’ Mrs Cathcart said. ‘We’re really keen on the magic of panto for the younger audience members, with lights and flashes, and we’ve really gone all out on the magical goose. I’d say it’s also a modern production, in terms of the costume, lighting and sets.’

There are a handful of tickets available for most performances but only the evening shows this Sunday and on New Year’s Day still have multiple seats together.