Village's wish of staging own Panto is granted thanks to Genie in the Lamp

It’s a first for Dalwhinnie... ‘Oh no it isn’t. Oh yes it is.’

Dalwhinnie will be staging its first ever DIY panto next Friday (December 10) at least as far as those involved in the am-dram can recall.

Dreams of the stage are coming true for a cast of local characters who are involved in the one-off production of Aladdin.

Simon Conroy, who plays Widow Twanky, said: “It is a shortened version of the panto. We have bought a script for the production and been very busy learning our lines.

“It was the idea of our director Sophie Gault – a stalker on Ben Alder Estate – to do the panto. She used to be involved in pantos before moving here.

“She said it would be a good use of the village hall which obviously at the moment is not getting much footfall.”

It was agreed over the summer over a few beers – as is so often the way of these things – in The Lodge bar in Dalwhinnie,

“There are people involved from Kingussie and Newtonmore now after the word was put out so there is a good spread of people,” said Mr Conroy.

The production is family friendly although there will be a smattering of innuendo in good-old-fashioned panto fashion. There will, of course, be audience interaction and some local name and place checks.

“We have geared it to all ages,” said Mr Conroy. “It is coming along nicely. We have dug into our own pockets to buy costumes. It is low budget but hopefully lots of fun for the audience.”

The production will run for between 45 minutes to one hour.

Other cast members are Sophie Gault (Abanazer); Peggy Crossman (Aladdin); Debbie Mills (Slave of the Ring); Phoebe Dowens (Princess Jasmine) and Carolyn Cleasby (Genie).

The production team are Ben Rose (scenery); David Haggarty (stage build) and Tim Atkinson (lighting).

Doors open at 6.30pm for 7pm.

Tickets are on now sale in the village’s filling station and The Lodge Hotel.

Covid precautions will be in place and seating is limited to 80 people.

• Humble apologies to the Genie in the Lamp and the rest of the cast of Aladdin. The latest Strathy states in print that the performance is this evening when it is in fact next Friday (December 10) so there is still plenty of time to buy tickets or just show up at the door (subject to latest Covid guidance).

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