How does it feel to play the Dame and were the rehearsals much different as Dame instead of as the Comic?

Richard J Fletcher: “It’s not hugely different because it’s still a comic character. I’ve got a bit more scope to do stuff for the older members of the audience this year. The Comic is really mainly for the children, and that’s why I loved doing that character, but I can be a little bit more cheeky playing the Dame. It’s slightly ruder because the Jack character is very naive whereas the Dame character is anything but. It’s just a great laugh.

“It’s quite odd watching Sam [Glen, playing Jack] doing what I’ve been doing for the last decade, but he’s brilliant at it. I think he’s great, he’s got a really good energy.

“What was really funny was that he told me that he’d spent his youth coming to watch me playing that character – which makes me feel really old! But that’s why it’s great being back at the Coliseum, because I used to come here throughout my youth to watch panto. This is where I started watching pantos from the age of probably three or four-years-old – with Kenneth Alan Taylor and Jeffrey Longmore as Dames”.

Can you tell us about your big reveal as the Dame?

Richard J Fletcher: “Every new costume is a big reveal with the Dame, that’s another thing that I’m looking forward to. The Wardrobe department at the Coliseum are so good and the designs are so brilliant that you only have to walk on stage in the costume and it often gets a round of applause. The costumes are so hilarious. I’ve got five or six costumes this year and they’re big costumes – I’m not going to spoil it and tell you what they are but there are some brilliant ones. The Wardrobe team start making them in the middle of the summer and quite a lot of them will need one or two dressers to get them on me, because they’re quick changes backstage as well”.

What can audiences expect from your Dame?

Richard J Fletcher: “I’ve spent the last 11 years in a rehearsal room with Fine Time [Fontayne, co-writer and former Coliseum Dame] so I think subconsciously I’d been learning quite a lot over those years from him. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring a little bit of what I’ve learnt from him to the show. My Dame is a bit younger than Fine Time’s and she’s a better dancer! I’m joining in with more of the big dance routines and the design is different – I requested a kitten heel for the opening costume and my makeup is different to his. People will notice a difference. I’ve been practising walking in my heels because it’s not easy dancing in heels as I’m sure ladies will agree! A kitten heel is enough for me!”

Are there any other differences in this year’s show?

Richard J Fletcher: “The writing of Jack and the Beanstalk is so up to date. Although it’s pantomime and it’s fun and stupid, it has some serious issues behind the writing. We talk about the villains who are really bad for the environment and they litter – those are very important messages to get across to children – what’s good and bad about littering and the effects on the environment. It’s really relevant to today.

“Musically, there are songs that have only just come out and some big hits from the year. I didn’t know any of them before we started rehearsals, except for the ones I recognised from my daughter’s bedroom! When you walk into a shop or you put the radio on they’re playing the songs that you’ve been singing twelve times every week, but that just proves that those are the popular songs. Sometimes you find yourself singing along in the middle of Boots”.

Do people recognise you in Oldham town centre through the year?

Richard J Fletcher: “ Because the Comic character always has the call and response from the audience, for the past ten years I’ve had those shouted at me in the aisle in Tesco all year round. I wonder whether they will recognise me this year because I’m going to have a lot of makeup on and I’m going to have some fantastic wigs”.

What was it that made you want to get involved with pantomime 12 years ago

Richard J Fletcher: “I trained in physical theatre at Drama School and one of my favourite genres is Commedia Dell’Arte, which is kind of where pantomime is derived from – Italian Theatre Commedia. You can find a lot of the Commedia characters in each pantomime. I also like musicals and I’m not good enough to be in them so I get the chance to pretend I’m in a musical! Jack and the Beanstalk is like a full on musical, I think we’ve got 15 songs this year”.

What is your history with the Coliseum?

Richard J Fletcher: “I started coming to see pantomime at the Coliseum when I was very young and then I did youth theatre here throughout my childhood. When I was 15 had a Saturday job here working in the café, which was called The Lion’s Den – I used to make toasties for all of the actors in a little kitchen which is now the offices next to the upstairs bar. I grew up coming to this place all the time. I went to London for twenty years and then, getting the chance to come back and now to be the Dame myself, it feels like a complete cycle”.

Jack and the Beanstalk is at Oldham Coliseum from Saturday 16 November 2019 – Saturday 11 January 2020.

Read our review.

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After leading 11 Christmas shows at Oldham Coliseum, Fine Time Fontayne is hanging up his outrageous wigs and extravagant frocks for the last time.

Nothing attracts like a dame, and after such a long run in the role, Fine Time has become a north west Christmas favourite. But, for those familiar with the venue’s family tradition, rest assured the fun continues in good hands. Fine Time is passing the coveted role of Dame to his long-time comedy co-star, Richard J Fletcher. He’s also staying on as the pantomime’s co-writer, working on the script for Jack and the Beanstalk with Director of the pantomime and Acting Artistic Director of the Coliseum, Chris Lawson. 

“To be able to hand over to someone that I admire and trust is making it easier for me to hang up my padding – top and bottom,” says Fine Time. “I know that I’m leaving the Coliseum in very safe hands. With a long tradition dating back to Kenneth Alan Taylor and subsequent Dames no one has ever dropped the ball and I think that Richard – being a former member of Manchester City’s Youth Squad – will kick the ball even higher. It’s like my son has become the daughter I never had.”

Fine Time leaves the role on a high and has no doubt got more high-jinx in store for Richard, who joined Oldham’s panto at the same time and has been his trusty side-kick in the messy slap-stick scenes for over a decade.

“It’s an honour to be asked to play the Dame – it’s as if Buttons is graduating! It’s a big role to fill but I’ve got a good few months to practise walking in heels and dancing in dresses,” says Richard. “Being an Oldhamer, the Coliseum panto was a big part of my childhood, I couldn’t imagine spending Christmas anywhere else and I’m excited to see everyone again next year.”

Fine Time and Richard are currently starring in Cinderella, as Pumpy Squeezepocket, one of the Ugly Sisters, and Buttons, which runs until 12 January 2019.

Jack and the Beanstalk runs from Saturday 16 November 2019 – Saturday 11 January 2020 at Oldham Coliseum Theatre. See website for details.

Read our interview with Fine Time Fontayne and Sue Devaney.

Read our review of Cinderella at Oldham Coliseum.

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When it comes to feelgood, family pantomime, it’s hard to beat Oldham Coliseum’s Christmas show. In large part that’s down to Fine Time Fontayne, who has been both the co-writer along with the theatre’s artistic director, Kevin Shaw for 11 years.

He’s played the pantomime dame for almost as many years. Having missed only one run in that time, after breaking his ankle during rehearsals in 2016.

Last year Fine Time returned with a blast, bounding onto the stage dressed as a tower of doughnuts, propped up by bright yellow Dr Marten boots. ‘I’m back!’ he said, to huge applause. For many his crazy costumes and upbeat, family-friendly banter have become a Christmas tonic not to be missed. But what keeps this Yorkshire man coming back across the Pennines?

“Playing the dame gives me the opportunity to go on a journey on stage that normally I wouldn’t get,” explains Fine Time, who this summer played Duncan in Macbeth at the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre in York. “I’m called Fine Time but basically, I’m a straight actor (I make my living acting). Being a dame places you in a position where you can be funny, you can be relaxed, and take risks.

“Having the opportunity to be a dame in the same place for years, like I have, you’re afforded the luxury that the audience are warm before you arrive. It allows you to relax and if you relax it’ll work, and you’ll be funny. When people know you, they like it when something goes wrong, such as the set falling over, and you can be in the moment with them and accept whatever happens.

“It’s a funny kind of stardom. There are no stars in repertory panto, but because the audience know you they like to see you. There’s a sense of ownership the audience has got to have. It’s Oldham’s pantomime and they are inviting us in and they love it when we turn up”.

While Fine Time brings his own history to the stage, he’s also conscious when creating the Christmas show pantomime’s traditional roots, dating back to the middle ages, taking on board the traditions of the Italian Commedia Dell Arte, the ancient Roman Saturnalia Midwinter Feast, the Italian Night Scenes and British Music Hall.

“If you watch Charlie Chaplain and Keystone Kops the routines are straight from the English pantomime,” he explains.

As well as the children’s fairy story, pop songs and nods to the latest trends (last year was Amazon Alexa), Fine Time makes sure his shows have all the traditional elements pantomimes have become famous for: specific stage entrances for the Villain (stage left) and Good Fairy (stage right), a middle-aged man dressed as a woman (Pantomime Dame), a young woman playing the male lead (Principle Boy), a Ghost scene and an ear-splitting “It’s Behind You!” (oh no it isn’t, oh yes it is!).

This year, Oldham’s pantomime is Cinderella, the rags to riches tale about a girl, a glass slipper and a handsome prince. And Fine Time is playing one of the Ugly Sisters, which means there’s not just one dame this year, but two.

“It’s a double dame!” he laughs.

The other Ugly Sister is Simeon Trueby, another regular face on the Coliseum stage and the actor who stepped in to save the day as dame when Fine Time had to suddenly drop out.

“I’ve known Simeon for six years now, but we don’t know each other as a double-act and we’re learning how that translates into two of us,” he adds. “We can’t both talk at the same time and as the audience responds we need to bring them along together. That’s starting to happen and I’m really looking forward to that”.

Adding to the familiar warmth of regular faces, Richard J Fletcher returns as the comedy side-kick, playing Buttons. And Sue Devaney, whose TV credits include Dinner Ladies and Coronation Street, joins the venue’s pantomime for the fourth time.

“I play the Wicked Stepmother, or to use her full title: Countess Viella Dipstick Squeezy Pocket the 31^st,” laughs Sue. “She’s very cruel. She loves money and power and men. She wants her girls to be wealthy and marry a prince so she can be kept in a lifestyle she thinks she’s accustomed to. She’s very manipulative if she wants something she’ll try every which way to get it. She flirts and she hurts!

“I always love playing the villain because you bring the wicked side of yourself out that you can never do when you’re in Aldi shopping. I can get a real buzz out of playing naughty – just on stage, obviously. Oldham audiences tell you when you’re not being good!”

Watch the video to hear Fine Time and Sue share back-stage secrets and advice on writing and creating a family Christmas show, as well as more insights into their history with the Oldham Coliseum pantomime.

Cinderella is at Oldham Coliseum from 10 November 2018 to 12 January 2019. See website for details.

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