And now for something completely different: Will Shakespeare The Panto.
Actually, it’s not all that different from the annual Gabriola Players holiday season pantomime we’ve all come to know and love. There’s plenty of booing to be done, along with all the other regular audience participation but, according to director Miranda Holmes, this year’s show is above all else a very funny musical comedy.
“When I was looking for a script for the 2014 panto, this one simply leapt off the page at me,” says Holmes.
The script by British playwright Robin Bailes had only just been published and will be having its world premiere right here on Gabriola next weekend. (Without giving too much away, Monty Python fans will adore it and Queen Elizabeth I is expecting her loyal subjects to be dancing in the aisles.)
According to Holmes, it wasn’t just the side-splittingly funny script that attracted her to the project.
“My first exposure to Shakespeare was in school,” she says. “A sadly uninspiring English teacher, who should never have been allowed within a yard of the Bard, was largely successful in turning students off Shakespeare forever. I know I’m not alone in this, which is one of the reasons this panto appealed to me so much – how awesome to start Gabriola’s youngsters off loving the idea of Shakespeare!”
English professors and historians will have to suspend their disbelief as the story unfolds of young Will Shakespeare’s struggles to save the girl he loves – and said Queen – from the clutches of the evil earl.
Will Shakespeare The Panto will be performed at the Community Hall on November 28 and 29 at 7pm and November 29 and 30 at 2pm. Tickets are $17 for adults and $5 for youth at North Road Sports or online at gabriloaplayers.ca. Under-fives free with a food bank donation.