Turning the world upside down is central to how pantomime works – underdogs triumph, baddies get their comeuppance and the elite frequently play second fiddle to their underlings as true love conquers all.
And so it is in Sleeping Beauty, this year’s traditional family pantomime at Lighthouse Poole, in which the comic character Happy Harry helps his hapless mother Dame Nanny Nutkins care for the Princess Rose while placating the bumbling King Tucker.
It’s a challenge that actor Josh Haberfield can’t wait to sink his teeth into.
“It’s going to be an absolute blast,” he says. “You can expect all of the usual panto shenanigans from Harry – he’s the audience’s best friend and the kids’ best friend, but then he’s full of double entendre, although in quite a sophisticated way.
“Actually, there’s a lot of stuff going on around Harry where he’s the only one who’s in control. He’s got to contend with the King who’s the real fool of this piece, but obviously has so much higher status, even though it’s Harry who knows what’s going on around him, and has to rush around putting out fires.”
Josh was a big hit in the comic role in Aladdin, last year’s award-winning Lighthouse panto, and was eager to work with the same production team again with CBeebies favourite Chris Jarvis – who also wrote and directs the show – as Dame alongside production designer James Smith, choreographer Daniel Donaldson Todd and musical director Adam Tuffrey.
“I’m really excited because Chris has really written the part for me this year, which is lovely. I do tend to play the panto comic in a bit of a different way to maybe how it’s often played as the fool – I like to have the two-level thing going on where your character does silly things but knowingly so. People do the part differently, but for Chris to go: ‘Actually, I believe in what you want to bring to this’, to be encouraged, that’s a real treat.”
Josh grew up in Sopley and cut his theatrical teeth in local am-drams before a BTEC at Poole College’s Jellicoe Theatre paved his way to Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Last year was his first home town panto and it clearly suited him well.
“I had a great time last year, a real combination of a lovely place to work, a really good team and just feeling like the show was exactly the sort of show that I want to be involved with.”
The messier the better it seems…
“Oh yes, one of the slosh scenes that we’re doing a take on is a real classic and I’m really excited about that; it’s going to be pushing my clowning skills to the max.
“I think it stems from what we did with the laundry scene in Aladdin because Chris didn’t realise just how far I was willing to push it. In fact, it wasn’t until we got in the tech rehearsal that I could show I didn’t mind jumping in a pool and slipping over and really going for it, so you will see me pushed to the absolute limit.
“There is something so special about hearing waves of kids laughing at the fact you’ve just been covered in foam. That is such a unique, joyful sound and it makes all the adults laugh as well. It’s such a joy to do.”
Looking beyond Sleeping Beauty, Josh will be back at Lighthouse in February in …Earnest?, the Edinburgh Fringe hit based on Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
“It’s a joy of a show and I’m so looking forward to sharing it with the audience from Poole who hopefully have seen me in panto and then come to see me in …Earnest?, I think Poole is going to love it.”
The show was created by Say It Again Sorry theatre company of which Josh is one of the company directors. After a mammoth 37-week tour it played Edinburgh in August to rave reviews and is going back on the road next year.
In it, the curtain is about to go up on a production of The Importance of Being Earnest when it is announced the lead actor is missing. A member of the audience is hastily cast… with hilarious consequences.
“There’s no plants, no set ups and no two shows are ever the same. We don’t improvise, we ask random members of the audience who have never been on stage before to improvise.
“It’s crazy, it truly is, it is just the most fun night out you could possibly imagine.”
:: Sleeping Beauty opens on Thursday 12 December and runs until Sunday 5 January. …Earnest? runs from Thursday 27 February until Saturday 1 March. Tickets for both are on sale now at https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk or call 01202 280000.
:: Josh Haberfield features in the current issue of Dorset Magazine, available now.
(NC)