It has become something of a long-held tradition for me to attend the annual panto at Kilmarnock's Palace Theatre on opening night.
Every year it signals the start of my festive season and helps put me firmly in the Christmas spirit.
This year’s magical production by Imagine Theatre is firm family favourite, Snow White, and it will run at the Kilmarnock theatre until December 30.
All the usual ingredients are in place for a great family night out.
There’s cheesy and cheeky gags galore, classic set pieces and slapstick, local in-jokes, beautiful costumes, brilliant dancing and singing, and a few spectacular special effects thrown in for good measure.
And there’s plenty of chances for the audience to take part too.
The highlight for me was the reimagining of the Twelve Days of Christmas song, which included some hilarious audience ‘participation’ and had the whole place in an absolute uproar.
The cast contains a few welcome, familiar faces including Gary Morrison as the comical castle jester Muddles, James McAnerney as Hammy the conflicted henchman and Craig McDougall as the heroic Prince Frederick of Fenwick.
Megan Beth-Pattie was delightfully engaging as our eponymous heroine and Nikki Auld was wonderfully wicked as her nemesis, the evil queen Morgana.
Joining the cast as dame this year is Andrew Agnew as Nurse Bella Mory, who many people of a certain vintage will remember as PC Plum from BBC children’s hit show Balamory.
Watch out too for a special appearance from former Coronation Street star and Imagine Theatre’s artistic director, Eric Potts, who Still Game fans will remember as slippery Mr Henderson from the Beefy Bakes episode.
I thought the whole cast gelled really well - it was clear everyone was really enjoying themselves and the panto was all the better for it.
Everyone left with huge grins on their faces, after a rousing sing song finale which put all of us in the mood for Christmas.
Snow White is an absolute classic and a sure fire festive hit.
Don’t miss out on this magical production, be sure to get you tickets from the Palace Theatre box office or online to eastayrshireleisure.com
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