She stands before us in a blue gingham frock, towering wig and a “hideous yet age-appropriate leisure shoe”. She is Dorothy Blawna-Gale and she is a pantomime dame. The creation of Johnny McKnight – Scotland’s finest proponent of the form – she is sharp-tongued, lascivious and bumptiously lovable.
Unlike her usual festive appearances at the Tron in Glasgow and the Macrobert in Stirling, she is here, out of season, not just to entertain – which she does in abundance – but to educate. In a show that grew out of a lecture at the University of Glasgow in memory of the late academic Alasdair Cameron, a champion of popular theatre, McKnight and director John Tiffany throw in songs, sweets and copious audience interaction to celebrate panto’s radical potential.
