Montforts’ director thrives on pantomime
As well as co-directing Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for the Montforts, Ryan is playing Jafar, Aladdin’s nemesis, at the Cork Opera House. He is also directing Chatty-Boo’s adult pantomime, Pinocchio Gets Bigger, at the Spailpín Fánach. But Ryan isn’t complaining. He thrives on the feelgood factor associated with pantomime and is appreciative of the hard work that the child performers from the Montforts put into their annual Christmas show.
While there is plenty of competition on Cork’s pantomime circuit with Jack and the Beanstalk at the Everyman as well as the Cork Opera House extravaganza, Ryan says that what is unique about the Montforts’ pantomime is that it’s performed exclusively by children. The older ones, aged 12 to 18 years, play the principal roles on alternating nights, forming a cast of 40 performers. Over the ten performances, some 600 children, aged between three and 11 years, will be on the stage of the Firkin Crane as the chorus. They all attend the Montfort College of Performing Arts, which operates all over Cork city and county.
