Beauty Queen nervous ahead of panto debut

A former Miss Ireland today revealed she was nervous ahead of making her panto debut despite years of modelling on the catwalk.

Aoife Cogan from Dublin’s Castleknock said taking to the stage as Queen Victoria Beckingham in the Lyons Tea Panto, Sleeping Beauty, would be her first time taking on an acting role.

“I did speech and drama for years but I never acted on the stage. It is exciting, I’ve been modelling for years. It did help as I was used to performing drama pieces for the examiner,” the 25-year-old said.

“The panto is different you are getting into character, it is more speeches about yourself for the Miss Ireland competitions.”

Aoife said she was looking forward to taking on the role of Queen Victoria Beckingham, alongside King David, modelled loosely on the infamous celebrity couple.

“I’ll definitely be nervous on opening night playing the character,” she said.

Another making her panto debut is singing star Hazel O’Connor as the Killer Queen, others taking to the stage include TV3’s Alan Hughes in his 15th consecutive panto, television star George McMahon and Joe Conlan as Buffy.

The panto, written by playwright and songwriter Karl Broderick, begins its six-week run on December 15.

“It’s definitely going to be really hard work, it will be on twice a day from December 15 with only a few days off over Christmas,” Aoife said. “It will be great fun.”

She said going to the panto at Liberty Hall had become a tradition for many families.

“There is a lot of adult humour in it too, like the Simpsons, it will appeal to adults and children,” she said.