The Arts Centre in Hounslow celebrates its 10th year as a professional pantomime with this year's production of Robin Hood taking place over the Festive Season. After a really busy year in Musical Theatre, Charlie McCullagh finishes his year off with his first ever pantomime, starring as Robin Hood. We took the opportunity to speak to Charlie to tell us more.
Q) You have had quite the successful year of originating a role in new musical 42 balloons, as well as touring around the UK with Jesus Christ Superstar as alternate Jesus. Now you are finishing the year off by playing Robin Hood in The Arts Centre’s Christmas Pantomime. How does it feel to be ending the year off with pantomime?
It's really exciting ending the year with a pantomime. I've never done a pantomime before and I love a new experience. The Arts Centre Hounslow has got such a fun, family, community feel to it and it's so great to be here. It really gets you in the Christmas spirit.
Q) Is pantomime something that you have been previously involved in, or is this something that is new to you this year? How do you find the change over from musical theatre to pantomime?
This is my first time doing pantomime! I go to see a pantomime every year- in fact, I've seen the Hounslow Art Centre pantomime two or three times, and I always just think it looks like such good fun.
There are a lot of elements that cross over between musical theatre and pantomime, just due to the stylised nature of it. However, pantomime has got a lot more spontaneity, improv, and chaos, which makes it a very, very exciting venture.
Q) After having such a great year of working in theatre - are there any skills or little tidbits of knowledge that you will be bringing to your role in this pantomime?
Embrace it. Just go nuts- make bold choices and hope the director points you in the right direction. Just have fun and connect with the audience each night, which on a pantomime is going to be such a unique experience. I'm very excited- and nervous- but excited!
Q) Pantomime is a Christmas tradition for many families over the festive period. As a young child, did you ever expect to be getting involved in pantomimes? And what was it about this pantomime that made you feel like you wanted to be involved?
I didn't go to see a lot of pantomimes when I was younger. It wasn't really a part of my family tradition until I was much older and I was doing am-dram, had friends in pantomimes and then I’d done one or two myself- so I can't say that I ever saw myself doing it. And even when I first became an actor, I didn't know if I'd be any good at it because I think it's a really special skill to do it well.
What made me want to do this one is that the teams and casts in the Arts Centre productions are always just so much fun. I think that a panto should always be fun, because if we're having fun on stage then the audience can have fun with us. We're all dancing, having a laugh, and nobody takes themselves too seriously.
Q) Speaking of traditions - what is your favourite tradition during the festive period?
My favourite tradition- it's not really a tradition I suppose- but dogs are a really big part of my family life, and Santa visits our dogs. We all put presents for our dogs under the tree, and every dog we've ever had gets really excited by Christmas. I just think there's something great about that, especially when now most of my family are all adults, but the dogs are still bring that joyous kid energy. If they see us wrapping their presents and putting them under the tree, they will pull them out and rip the wrapping paper off to steal the presents inside. Plus, living in England full time with all my family in Ireland, just the idea of going home for Christmas and seeing everybody is just so much fun.
Q) The Arts Centre boasts an intimate venue with only 242 seats - what advantages and (disadvantages - if any) do you think this has on performing in a pantomime?
I love an intimate venue- it means that you can often see everyone. You know, when you do these really, really big venues, sometimes you can only see the front three or four rows. As an actor, I really want to try and connect with everyone, and I find with more intimate venues you can really connect with everyone, so everyone feels like they're almost on stage with you. It feels collaborative between the audience and the cast. Also, the style of pantomime combined with an intimate theatre and this type of production is such a collaboration- the audience are going to bring something and they are as much a part of the show as we are, which is so exciting. It keeps it fresh and fun!
Q) How have rehearsals been so far for this pantomime? I can imagine that it is a lot of fun. Have you had any standout moments of breaking character or hilarious ad-libbing?
Hilarious ad-libbing is just a daily occurrence. I think there's more ad-libbing than actual script sometimes. I break character the most I think- I'm terrible for corpsing, and people have discovered that so purposely lean in and make me laugh by ad-libbing lines and insulting me on stage.
A standout moment so far in rehearsals has been during a scene where Robin is pretending to be Maid Marian while he's hiding from the Sheriff under a blanket in her room. Our set had just been painted and had its final coat and was varnished. The bed is a part of the set, and I kept slipping down it, so the Sheriff basically had to hold me on the bed. It was very intimate, and it was very funny, but it was also very chaotic because both of us were just constantly falling on the floor. This is a crazy panto. I think the audience are going to have a really good time.
Q) Why should audiences come along to watch Robin Hood this year? What can audiences expect?
What's really great about this panto- written by Jonathan Ashby-Rock - is that not only does it have so much of the panto traditions- it's wacky and whimsical, it's fun and chaotic, it’s silly and stupid - but it also has a lot of heart and there are really good moments of character development and characters learning important lessons. I think that can sometimes be lost in a panto for just the gags and whatnot, but I think that this show does a really good balance of the wacky, chaotic fun that we all love, but while still having a really heartwarming story about friendship.
Q) Just a fun question to finish off - if you could turn any story/film/TV series into a pantomime, what would you choose and why?
This is a hard one. I want to pick something really rogue, just for a laugh. I'm going to go bonkers, because why not? I love Lord of the Rings. And you know, we've got a TV show, we've got books, we've got films - why not a panto? I think it would be great- “Sauron- where is he? He's behind you.” But also at its core- with the hobbits and stuff- there's a lot of room for whimsy and fun. It's a story about friendship. Good luck adapting it to whoever wants to write it. I'm not saying I would, but if I get to pick my dream thing to be turned into a panto, I'll always take more Lord of the Rings - unless it's produced by Amazon.
Robin Hood plays at The Arts Centre in Hounslow from the 28th November until 30th December - for more information and tickets, you can follow the link here.
Photography from The Arts Centre's instagram page.
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