The Everyman's first female panto dame: 'There's magic around the panto at Christmas'
Catherine Mahon-Buckley, (left) producer & director of the Everyman & CADA presentation of the Christmas Panto, Beauty and the Beast, in Cork, and Fionula Linehan who plays the first ever female dame in the panto. Picture: Denis Minihane.
Bursting onto the stage on a scooter as panto dame Peggy Twomey in the Everyman’s production of Beauty and the Beast, Fionula Linehan is having the time of her life.
Her turn as the Everyman’s first female panto dame is receiving rave reviews, but better yet, Fionula is relishing her part in people’s Christmas traditions.
“There’s magic around the panto at Christmas,” says Fionula. “It brings joy, laughs and fun to children, and it gives adults an opportunity to revisit their childhood. To be a part of that is just wonderful.”
Fionula has been a stalwart of the Everyman panto for over 20 years. She’s been a baddie, an ugly sister, a dog, a snake, and a sidekick. Now, as the panto dame, she is taking her role very seriously.
“There’s a purpose to the panto dame. Your job is to scoop the audience up and bring them through the story. You make them feel mothered and warm; they trust you,” says Fionula.
The dame is a unique role in theatre. A dame can and does break the so-called fourth wall in that they can chat with or react to the audience.
The beauty of panto is that interaction, and with so many kids in the audience, anything can happen. That’s where Fionula’s experience plays such a large part.
“I’m an accomplished panto actor. I’ve honed my craft over the years. Working with performers like Frank Twomey, Jim Mulcahy and Ciaran Bermingham through the years I’ve learned a lot. I’ve picked up the various nuances of working panto. I’ve seen what works with an audience, and built up an idea of how to play a dame. Sure, I’m not a man, but I bring something different to the part, a different energy.”
Traditionally, the panto dame is played by a male actor, and the Everyman has played host to many male panto dames over the years, including the late Frank Twomey.
But Catherine Mahon Buckley, director of the Everyman panto, always knew that one day Fionula would take on the coveted role of panto dame.
The pair have worked together in panto for decades; Fionula was Catherine’s understudy when Catherine suffered a miscarriage over 20 years ago, and Fionula had to step into the role of the baddie. From then on, Fionula’s trajectory was clear to Catherine.
“I always knew she would become the dame. Here we are in 2023, and we have our first female dame. I’m so proud of her.” Make no mistake, panto is no cakewalk for an actor, says Catherine.
“Panto is one of the harder theatre genres for actors and directors. If you can play panto, you can do anything. With panto, it’s a new show every time you perform. You could have a quiet audience, a boisterous audience, you can have an audience where the children get completely involved, and as an actor you need to adapt to that and know how to work with them. That’s where your art, training and skill come into it. Panto can be the making of an actor.”
And Catherine would know. Next year will mark her 30th panto at the Everyman. When she took on the job of directing the Everyman panto in 1994 the theatre was in dire straits.
“They didn’t know if they’d be able to put on the panto that year. My husband Ted, who sat on board at the time asked me if I’d take it on,” she remembers.
“I’m a jump-into-the-Atlantic-before-you-realise-you-have-to-swim type of person so I did take it on, even with the budget limitations. At the time, the Opera House panto was huge, and they were attracting big names each year. You’d have to be brazen to go up against them, but there’s a madness in me, and here we are almost 30 years later and it’s grown so much.”
On this, her 29th panto, Catherine knew she wanted Fionula to play the dame. But then she had to tell Fionula. “I told her, and then I had to remind her to breathe!” says Catherine. “At that stage, there was an onus on both of us to make it work. But on our first day of rehearsal back in November I knew well that Fionula had it and that it would be great.”
For Catherine and Fionula, they wanted the dame to make an impact right off the bat. “I decided we’d put Fionula on a scooter and she’d scoot onto the stage. You could hear the cheers and the laughs straight away, and from then on she had them eating out of her hand,” recalls Catherine.
Live theatre, like any live entertainment, is all about human connection. And for Catherine and Fionula this is central to their approach, both from the acting and directing side. One of Catherine’s mantras is “Don’t let your inner child die”.
Being part of the panto each year gives the pair an opportunity to create joy and help adults to relive childhood excitement. But it’s a fine line, and making the stories we’re all familiar with relevant to today’s audience is a tricky task.
The thing with panto is that you’re catering for a huge age range, from four to 80. Creating a show that has such a wide appeal is difficult. According to Catherine, the team decides on the story - whether that’s Beauty and the Beast or any other fairytale. Children are involved from an early stage as the Everyman runs workshops with children to hear what they would like from the show.
“That’s how lines like ‘don’t be snaking into my DMs’ end up in a production of Beauty and the Beast,” explains Catherine. “While we want to make the show relevant, I’m clear about staying true to the original storylines as much as we can. You can of course branch off to the ‘what ifs’ but we’ll always come back to the trunk of the tree.” Fionula describes this year’s production of Beauty and the Beast as having been “Corkified”.
“The story is set in Shandon in Cork, and we have characters like Peggy Twomey of course, plus Sparky Looney instead of Lumiere, and Gasbag instead of Gaston. It’s great Cork fun, with familiar turns of phrase that a Cork audience will recognise.”
It’s a long run for panto actors and the team. Rehearsals start in November, with performances kicking off in early December, and running till the second week in January. On Saturdays, the team do three performances, starting at 11.30.
“You don’t have time to think,” says Fionula. “You’re essentially giving up your Christmas, but I love it. When I’m on stage and I hear the laughs and see the joy on the audience’s faces, I think, what a fabulous job this is!”
Catherine agrees. “Live theatre, and panto, are a balm for the soul. In today’s world, it brings that human connection that is so valuable. It’s about bringing magic and excitement.”
Halfway through the run of this year’s panto, and Catherine is already making plans for next year’s show. It’ll be her 30th panto in the Everyman, and if the last 29 years are anything to go by, it’ll be a panto to remember.
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