Panto season is here - Oh yes, it is

2:28pm Monday 24th November 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

TV star Clive Mantle cannot wait until Malvern Theatre’s panto Aladdin opens next month.

The popular actor is playing baddie Abanazer in the panto and is loooking forward to it immensely.

A familiar face from the hugely popular and long-running BBC show Casualty and a love interest for Dawn French’s Vicar of Dibley, Clive is more than happy to be playing the bad guy.

In Casualty he portrayed the professional and kindly consultant Mike Barratt and in the Vicar of Dibley his Simon Horton character is attractive and charming but playing the good guy, explains Clive, is actually a rather recent development for him.

“I spent years being cast as a baddie and I did rather enjoy it and playing a panto baddie is always good fun,” said Clive, who was in Malvern last week for the Christmas lights switch on.

Clive said one of the attractions of pantomime was the fact that in a stage play the job of the actor is to communicate with other actors whereas in panto the idea was to perform directly to the audience.

“The audience become more than just the audience they become part of the show and the atmosphere is tremendous.”

Clive said that for children especially the audience participation was crucial.

“It’s one of the few times children can go to the theatre and not be expected to sit quietly. Quite the opposite the characters on stage are actually encouraging them to shout out, sing, join in. I love it,” said Clive.

He hopes that today’s children will find family visits to the pantomime as memorable as his own childhood experiences of the theatre.

He said he loved to watch from his dressing room window just before and after a pantomime and watch families arriving and leaving.

“Panto is a real family experience. It’s great to see people come out afterwards, all animated and talking together,” said Clive.

He said the other aspect of panto that he loved was the specialness and uniqueness of each show.

“Every performance is different because every audience is different. When there’s a really great atmosphere being in panto can feel like a real priviledge.”

Aladdin opens on Thursday, December 18, and runs through until the New Year. Contact Malvern Theatres on 01684 892277.