Where is Shane the panto dame? He's behind you!

Jessica Thompson

It’s not Christmas without the annual panto at Mullingar Arts Centre, and this year’s show, Alice in Wonderland, promises to keep up the tradition of festive fun.

Panto dame, Shane Bardon, encourages everyone to come along and support local arts this Christmas, particularly the panto, as there’s something in it for everyone.

“There’s a lot of audience participation and there’ll be an awful lot of sing-alongs as well. There’ll be some well-known songs in it this year and the set is going to be fantastic,” he said.

“It’s going to be so colourful and it’s really going to make the kids feel like they’re going to get lost in a magical world.

“When we go down the rabbit hole, we’re going to disappear on the stage and we reappear in this whole new magical wonderland and, for the kids to see the set change, I think it’ll blow them away this year.”

Shane will be changing out of his usual work attire to put on the dress and heels – and the big orange hair, to play the role of the dame once again this year, and he is looking forward to providing quality entertainment to families for the season.

“I have four dresses in total, so for three weeks every Christmas I jump out of my work clothes and into the dress and wear a pair of high heels and get on stage and sing – and it’s a really good laugh,” he said.

“I suppose the role I have is the comedy role. I tend to get away with more than the rest of the cast. I can go off script, and so it’s a really fun role to play.”

This is Shane’s seventh year of being the panto dame but he’s a longstanding member of the group, having worked in roles with the stage crew, with sound, with lights. In fact, over the years, he’s only ever missed one panto.

“I’ve pretty much done everything, from helping to build the sets to being in the show itself. I was in the show as a sidekick before and then I worked my way up to being the dame, and I have to say I love this role and never want it to end,” he said.

“I think people should come to the panto this year because every year we try to outdo ourselves. We try to make it better each year, we try to add more, we try to give it the wow factor.

“This year there are two wow factors. I won’t tell you what the second wow factor is, but the first wow factor is we have a friend on stage who is a talking tree and I think when kids look up and see this tree talking and blinking, they’re going to be blown away.”

The success of the panto and of the Mullingar Arts Centre generally wouldn’t be possible without director, Sean Lynch, who Shane says has done so much for children in the area over a quarter of a century.

“He brings kids out of their shells, he brings adults out of their shells. Some people have gone into the arts centre and didn’t even know they had as much talent as they had, and he brings them on and progresses them. He’s done so much for kids in the arts centre,” said Shane.

“There have been loads of people over the years that came out of Mullingar Arts Centre. It’s a great hub for talent. And Sean Lynch, to be fair, has done a wonderful job down there for the last 25 years. I honestly can’t praise the man enough.”

Rehearsals are going well for Alice in Wonderland, and the cast and crew are preparing every night for what will be a fantastic run over Christmas.

Shane said: “I think people should support local theatre because when you go to the cinema, you’re paying for big Hollywood expenses,” he said.

“It’s more personal when you go to your local town and support a play or support a gig or support live music. I think people need to come together over the next few years and start supporting local live music acts, local theatre acts, because if they don’t, there’s that fear that live theatre might at some stage start to fizzle out a little bit.

“But as a whole, I think everybody should come to this year’s panto because it will give everybody a great laugh. There’s something in it for the mams, dads and kids, and it’s well worth a day out.”