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Sleeping Beauty poster

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Sleeping Beauty by Robin Davies - King Peter

- City Varieties, Leeds. Directed by Tony Lidington.

Another lovely panto at the City Varieties, with Richard Huggett from 'Neighbours' as the Prince and Kathey Pitken (Fizz in the ill-fated 'El Dorado'). Richard was very funny (as well as being VERY easy to 'corpse' on stage - always a plus for me in panto) and Kathy did everything that she had to do - which was to be very beautiful, sweet and likeable, all of which she was in real life.

I had a real career revelation in this show. I suddenly realised, a couple of weeks into the run and after a career of playing older than my real age, that not only was I (as usual) playing the father of the Princess but that I was actually old enough to be Kathy's father in real life! That was a bit of an eye-opener!

I had a really good time on this show once it had opened. Rehearsals were a bit of a trial as we had a director who was firmly of the 'we open in five days, the whole second act is pretty much unrehearsed and we haven't even learned the finale number...so lets spend the whole morning playing trust games' school. Me, I like to learn the words, find out where the furniture is so I don't bump into it, and then do it over and over again until it's right. Once it was up and running though, the whole cast (all of whom were terrific to work with) entered into it with gusto and we had a great time! King Peter was a great part - very funny, lots to do and plenty of opportunity for gentle scene-stealing and ad-libs.

Of course, I had my critics! After the show one night when my sister's family had travelled up to see the pantomime, I asked my nephew, who was four at the time, what he thought of the show. He stared at me balefully and delivered this trenchant piece of criticism: "You had paint on your nose!" No argument there!

In addition to my acting duties in the show, I also built all of the specialist props, including a giant birthday cake, fairies' wands, spell books, the fatal spindle of the spinning wheel and a large cat whose eyes glowed in the dark. Perhaps the most spectacular item though was a full size prop double for the witch, capable of flying from one side of the stage to the other on a hidden rail.

"It was a show in which the stars...were outshone by their supporters, particularly Jon Glentoran as King Peter..."

King Peter holding up a finger and saying Eureka!