Fort Edmonton Park pedals panto

In recent years, Capitol Theatre at Fort Edmonton Park has outdone itself giving vintage entertainment a fresh platform.

This holiday season it premieres a beloved age-old British tradition rarely seen in these parts – the panto.

Capitol Theatre artistic director Dana Anderson has collaborated with playwright-actress Jocelyn Ahlf who put pen to paper and wrote Cinderella: A Traditional Christmas Pantomime.

“We’ve had a great deal of old time and traditional theatre and we’ve had a great deal of success with it. I had an interest in mounting a panto and Jocelyn had an interest in writing one and we worked from there,” Anderson said.

Yes, the British love a good panto, ever since actor-manager John Rich introduced it to theatre audiences in 1717.

The panto usually involves a conventional fairytale complete with songs, dances, exaggerated or buffoonish characters and lots of raucous audience participation.

Men perform certain female roles and there is usually a ghost or spirit that pops up unexpectedly. It is theatre at its silliest, and encourages audiences to cheer for the good guys and boo and hiss at villains.

“There’s a certain talking style in pantos and we’re trying to provide as much local commentary as we can. We’re trying to make it close to home by fitting in things we hear on the news,” Anderson said explaining the play structure.

The eight-character, eight-actor production envisions a pantomime horse, a Gretzky-esque prince, and a couple of cross-dressing actors tricked up as evil stepsisters.

St. Albert’s own Madelaine Knight is set to play the lead role of Cinderella.

A busy actress, Knight just came off a cross-country tour of Dora the Explorer with Evergreen Theatre. Her last area production was Hollywood Burlesque, a penetrating look at Tinseltown’s casualties, produced at the 2014 Edmonton Fringe Festival.

Knight’s Cinderella is a people pleaser whose best friend is Fred Buttons (Jason Hardwick), the family butler. And of course like other Cinderella plays, two evil stepsisters (Tom Edwards and Colin Matty) provoke her until the Prince (Byron Martin) appears.

Unlike the majority of scripted theatrical plays, a panto is heavily based on improvisation – something that is at times disquieting for Knight.

“You have to be fast on your feet. There’s lots of room for improvisation. And everyone is so funny so the pressure is there to come up with good quips.”

For actors who enjoy the security of a pre-planned script, performing in a panto might be dicey. But for Knight it’s another challenge to stretch her acting chops.

“It’s a lot more freeing and it’s an open style. You’re not locked in. If you want to try something you can. The style is meant to discover new jokes. You don’t have to stick with the same material or feel confined.”

She is also quick to acknowledge Erik Mortimer, a young Edmonton composer-arranger-accompanist who wrote and scored the music.

“The music adds a whole new energy to the scenes. The panto’s not a musical, but the music just livens things up.”

For Knight, Cinderella is the ideal family show with jokes for children and double-entendres aimed at adults.

“It’s so accessible for the whole family. It’s the perfect show to get you in the mood for the Christmas season.”