Pretty flamingo (?)

While many birds fly south for the winter, a flamingo has decided to make the theatre foyer its home for the next month. This is just one of several weird and wonderful creatures that will be making an appearance in ALICE IN A NON-PC WORLD, this year’s alternative panto for childish grown-ups. Some people have even asked if Denzil the Donkey is making a reappearance after his star turn last year (answer: no)!

We don’t stage a traditional family panto – with our friends at the Everyman so close and always making such a fantastic job of it (last year’s was voted ‘the best in the west’), there would be little point in trying to compete. Ours is not an ‘adult panto’ of the sort staged by Jim Davidson for some years but something silly, occasionally suggestive, occasionally politically incorrect, and ideal for those people who just want a good laugh in the run up to Christmas. It wouldn’t be suitable for children, but teenagers usually lap it up.

It always proves extremely popular, particularly with office parties, and on Thursday nights we don’t start the performance until 8.30 to make allowance for late night shopping. This year, ticket sales are up an incredible 60% on this time in 2007 and the final Saturday performance is rapidly approaching sell-out status! You’ll be able to read a bit more about ALICE in next week’s ‘Notes From…’