Posted in Christmas Shows, Pantomime, The Play’s the Thing on 10 October, 2023.

BATH’s favourite double act is back again for Christmas – and this time comedian and writer Jon Monie and lovable “Dame” Nick Wilton are joined by East Enders “bad boy” Neil McDermott as a dashing prince.

Jon, into his 21st Bath pantomime season, and Nick, for his sixth festive period in the country’s prettiest theatre, have established a great on-stage rapport and a warm relationship with the audience.

Part of the success is the story-telling – Bath Theatre Royal, says Nick, is a fairy-tale setting for fairy tales. Jon, who has written Bath’s 2023 panto, Sleeping Beauty, agrees: “The story is the key. It’s not one of the most frequently performed pantomimes but it is a lovely fairy tale, with a nice balance of evil and good – Carabosse and Fairy Snowfall – and lots of adventure, comedy, romance, flying and slapstick.

Nick, playing Nanny Nora, is a dame in an old tradition, kindly, cuddly, and funny. She is not a glamorous figure in gold and glitter, as are so many contemporary pantomime dames. Nick thinks this trend owes a lot to the current high profile of drag.

But a panto dame is usually a poor widow, unable to pay her rent, on the verge of being evicted by a ruthless baron or squire, dependent on the wit (or otherwise) of her energetic but often reckless or foolish son. And that’s how Nick plays it – “character not caricature.”

The costumes should look as if they have been made by someone who doesn’t have any money. “I know I am different from a lot of other dames, and there is a place for glamour, but Bath allows me to do a traditional dame,” says Nick, “ the Theatre Royal does real story-book pantomime.” And Jon, who earned his spurs with the great Chris Harris, says: “Chris established something really special here.” And he and Nick and Neil and all the cast will be continuing that wonderful legacy.