Sizing Up Saucy Sarah

The lovely ladies in our wardrobe department are putting together the first stages to one of the pantomime dame costumes for Dick Whittington. Saucy Sarah (that’s the pantomime dame not one of the wardrobe ladies) is to be dressed as a portion of fish and chips. The cast don’t start with us for some time yet so they were on the lookout for a stand-in (a victim basically).

I’m roughly the same size and height as Fine Time Fontayne so got roped in for a basic try on of the costume. What could be more normal for a slightly overcast Wednesday afternoon at work? On goes the padding to bulk me up to resemble Saucy Sarah’s voluptuous dimensions, that in its self is quite a weird experience and although on a diet I was pleased that I still needed the padding.

Then we add the prop costume - it’s going to look amazing. Celia, our designer, was there to oversee proceedings even at this early stage and it’s looking like we are going to have yet another visual feast ahead of us. The prop chips have been made, they're huge and covered in sparkly gold lamé. Already I can predict jokes, maybe something like “people round here have a real chip on their shoulder” etc etc. Oh the joy of panto and its only 18 weeks till it opens.

As it turns out I quite like dressing up anyways… happy days.

Jonno

Deputy Stage Manager