Winter finally arrived with the snow in late November and suddenly everyone realised that Christmas was just around the corner!
For Hemel Hempstead Theatre Company, that meant that panto was only just two weeks away and there was still SO much to do.
If you haven’t already bought your tickets, there may still be a few left with show dates from Thursday to Sunday December 5-8 and Thursday to Sunday December 12-15, with matinees on both Saturdays and Sundays. The panto is Cinderella, complete with a magical fairy coach, bedecked with twinkling lights, comic Ugly Sisters (one very tall and the other much shorter), an enthusiastic children’s chorus, a thigh-slapping Prince Charming and, of course, the lovely Cinders herself.
Backstage, a small army of supporting members have been meeting on Saturdays to paint the set, built by our Premises Manager, John Eames. Those of you, who know the Boxmoor Playhouse, may not have envisaged it with stage flats laid out over much of the hall floor and pots of brightly coloured paint on every side!
However, pantos (and Christmas) will be over very soon; and at HHTC we’re already planning for the Next Thing – Alan Ayckbourn’s hilarious Bedroom Farce, which involves four couples and takes place in the bedrooms of three of them. Beds are ruffled and tempers frayed in a play which director Mariam Gaballa-Gill describes as: “hilarious, touching and fast paced” and is scheduled for next March.
But more of that next month. For the present, I shall just wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
