It’s always great to be able to come up with something which is both familiar and brand new at one and the same time – and choosing Camelot the Panto gives you an opportunity to do just that. It’s an entirely new and original pantomime script, whilst still retains loads of traditional story appeal and recognition for your audience.
When I started looking at the Arthurian legends, I was amazed by the sheer number of characters and references that I had never heard of, but they certainly fired up my imagination and I thought they would be great for pantomime…! The Shrieking Bog, the Adventurous Bed, the Evil Sisterhood - and characters like Garlon the Invisible Knight, Valerin the Vicious and Connie Clatterbottom – actually that’s a bit of a fib – Connie Clatterbottom doesn’t really feature in the Arthurian legends, but every panto needs a dame!
However, I really did think that Camelot the Panto would facilitate some wonderful panto scenes and lend itself to a whole rosta of exciting new characters for a large-cast pantomime script.
It also gave me the opportunity to write for five villains, one of whom was invisible… Morgan le Fay, Valerin the Vicious, Valerin’s Mum, Marlon the Visible Knight and Garlon the Invisible Knight – and if you include the members of the Evil Sisterhood, Glitonea, Thitis, Morgause, Maronoe, Mazon, Gliton and Tyronoe – that’s not five, but twelve villains and villainesses!
Unaccountably, Valerin’s Mum never seemed to get a mention in any of the Arthurian sources I was studying, but writing my own version of the Camelot story gave me the opportunity to right this wrong and strike a blow for Mums everywhere!
Of course, with characters like Merlin and Morgan le Fay, magic and magical possibilities are at the heart of the story, and this immediately creates a world full of potential dangers, opportunities and general chaos. All great for panto!
So, in my Camelot the Panto script – there are two great “set piece” comic scenes in each half. Merlin’s Laboratory in the first, with a Talking Head, a Talking Snake and a love potion which backfires – rendering Teddie (a sweet pantomime bear) all consumingly in love with King Uther Pendragon, much to his intense irritation.
And in the second half there is The Haunted Hotel in the Shrieking Bog, featuring the Adventurous Bed – and yes, the scene features every haunted bedroom gag known to man!
The glue that holds so much of pantomime together is nearly always a love story and so in my version there are two – the slow burn romance between Arthur and Guinevere and the less complicated romance between Laughalot the Jester and Guinevere’s maid, Nell.
Arthur and Guineviere’s relationship is quite feisty and the one between Nell and Laughalot is at first very comic, but ends up quite touching. I always like the scene where they rehearse the binding of hands.
But of course, the most important reason for you to choose Camelot the Panto for your panto script is that you, your cast and your audience will have a ball. There are lots of great parts for everyone to enjoy and it is very, very funny. It always goes down a storm!