Panto packed with surprises

Expecting the unexpected is par for the course for the members of ITSA Theatre Company, which is staging its annual Improvised Panto at the Half Moon Theatre in Cork from Dec 6-21. Now in its third year, this fun event is, to some extent, guided by the over-16s audience.

The cast is made up of Ciarán Bermingham, Laura Harte, Laura O’Mahony (who is also the director), Annette Roche and Dominic McHale. For the first time, the cast will be singing, accompanied by pianist, Paul O’Connor.

Given that the audience chooses which pantomime will be performed each night of the run, what sort of input does the director have? “It’s mostly about the cast becoming comfortable with one another,” says McHale. “Laura has plenty of experience at improvisation because she works with Snatch Comedy. She gets us to play games together during the rehearsal period. That helps us to know what weaknesses and strengths we all have. We run the show as many times as we can in rehearsals, just to get used to putting on an entirely improvised show. Laura calls the shots and introduces changes at every rehearsal so we don’t start relying on any routines. She constantly challenges us.”