Vamos actor Richard J Fletcher has quite a challenge on his hands this Christmas. After two weeks working on The Best Thing with Vamos, he's headed up to Oldham Coliseum for a full panto run of Mother Goose, before heading back to Vamos in January for the final weeks of rehearsals. Is it confusing? Can mask skills be useful in a pantomime? Richard tells us all...
Next year’s tour of The Best Thing will be my third Vamos production but I still feel I have so much to learn about full mask theatre, this specific craft and its techniques. It’s such a unique discipline and I can’t imagine ever knowing what works or doesn’t without director Rachael Savage being there to guide me (I believe an outside eye is compulsory in all rehearsal rooms but especially in mask, as the slightest gesture can convey so much).
This will be my 8th consecutive year playing the fool in Oldham Coliseum’s pantomime. I suppose you could say I’m in my comfort zone, but I’m really grateful to have had a couple of weeks behind a mask before panto rehearsals began. Thinking about it, there are many things I can take from mask work into the panto rehearsal room, and many parallels can be drawn.
I won’t go on about Mr Brecht, but the removal of the 4th wall and total connection between actor and audience are crucial in both genres. When a masked character enters the stage they must take time to take in their audience (this is such an important exercise when learning mask). The character I play in panto opens the show and it’s crucial that I connect and make friends with the audience from the off. This year they join my gang and help The Goose Family defeat The Demon of Discontent!
Both rehearsal rooms have a very similar feel: a place to be creative, offer up new ideas and contribute to the development of a brand new piece of theatre through play. This is probably my favourite part of the process as it’s like being back in the school playground.
But the transition between the two productions is a challenge and at times hard work. It’s one I love though, and hopefully one from which both productions will benefit. Mother Goose opened at Oldham Coliseum on the 14th November and plays pretty much twice a day till Jan 9th. Then on the 11th January, I arrive at Vamos with two weeks rehearsal before The Best Thing debuts at The London International Mime Festival. Just typing that makes me feel knackered, so I’m going to fall up the stairs and do a ‘quick change’ into my pyjamas.
We’ve got our happy ending.
We’re full of festive cheer
Thank you all for coming and we’ll see you all next year!
Richard J Fletcher