ELAINE C Smith is sitting on a ship’s stool in front of me, wearing a Popeye hat and nautical costume designed not so much for sailing the seven seas but for cruising along on giant waves of laughter.

Smith is back in panto this year and for a couple of minutes we work out how many pantos she has actually appeared in. “It’s hard,” she grins. “And you have to factor in the likes of the pantos I did at the Tron and the Lyceum, when they used to be called ‘Christmas Shows’, and I would say of them ‘What? Do you mean ‘No laughs?’”

The actor almost produces a Popeye laugh (even though she plays Mrs Smee in Peter Pan) as she recalls one serious stint at the Lyceum. “There was this one scene I was playing alongside Billy McElhaney as the King and the King says to me ‘Who are you? And in rehearsals I shoved in the gag ‘Fine, thanks. Who’s yourself?’ But the director said ‘No, no, no! No gags in this show. We’re in Edinburgh you know.’ And I said ‘I’ve been a teacher in Edinburgh. The kids laugh here as well!’” She adds, laughing. “I think that gag should be in every single panto.”

While some theatres have chosen to see Christmas as a time when the laughs are left boxed up under the tree, Smith’s love of a chuckle demands that they are produced as often as a desperate singleton pulls out mistletoe at an office party. And she argues (and who can contest her argument) that panto is a serious art form.

“Yes, panto used to be performed often by people whose career was seen to be on the skids. But no longer.  I choose to do panto, as does Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders and Julian Clary. (And Sir Ian McKellen) And when you have people of this calibre you really lift the product.

“What I love to do is celebrate this art form. For children, panto is a gateway drug to theatre. For a lot of kids, it’s also the first time they will experience a live orchestra or see dancers on stage.”

Smith didn’t grow up a panto fan. “I’d never even seen a panto because where we lived (Newarthill in Lanarkshire) was too far away – an hour on a bus – and too expensive to take kids into Glasgow and buy the tickets as well. And there was a barrier for working class people in knowing how to book theatre tickets. So, the first panto I actually saw was when I was a student at the RSAMD.”

The first professional panto Smith saw was the first one she appeared in. “I was Cinderella, and I hated it,” she admits because of the politics of theatre and it’s over-reliance on tradition. “And women weren’t allowed to be funny. They were there to be beautiful.”

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But now she says genders can be switched at the flash of a sword, anyone can play anyone, so long as they are good. “I’ve seen men play dames who are brilliant, and men who are sh**”.  Smith was behind the King’s panto’s move to see rising star Hannah Jarrett-Scott play Captain Hook. “I saw Jennifer Saunders play the part and she was brilliant. I’m sure Hannah will be as well. And of course, Darren Brownlie is our Tinkerbell. He’ll be fantastic.”

Smith, whose university thesis was on panto and its reinventive capacity, quotes her old pal Gerard Kelly when talking of the joy of panto. “It’s also about a celebration of local culture,” she says. “In Glasgow we won’t care about Edinburgh or Aberdeen, and vice versa. We’re playing to this West Coast audience.”

But laughter is key. “You have to remember that we live in an era, post Covid, in which people want to gather together and laugh. At the moment, audiences are not going to go see a play about Covid. I feel sorry for playwrights who are writing dark stuff, but audiences want joy and light. And even though I can get a bit tired when I do panto, when I walk out on stage, I’m more enlivened than ever.”

So how many pantos in total Elaine? “I think thirty,” she says. So, you know what you’re doing now? “Well, I’m 66 now - so naw,” she says with perfect timing, laughing so hard the Popeye hat almost falls from her head.

Peter Pan, the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, November 23 – January 5.

 

Don’t Miss:  It’s October 1964. The world is gripped by Beatlemania. And two chalets on the banks of Loch Earn become the base for the Fab Four as they embark on a short tour of Scotland. But watching their every move are four Beatlemaniacs from Perth. Each named after their favourite Beatle, John, Paul, George and Ringo, these teen girls camp out across the loch in a desperate quest to meet their heroes.

Gabriel Quigley’s play, There’s A Place, is directed by Sally Reid and looks to be one of the theatre highlights of the year.
Perth Theatre, October 17-November 2.