Playing Dame – Brad Fitt (Widow Twankey in Aladdin, Cambridge Arts)
What similarities are there between the Dame character in the different pantomime stories?
I think that the dames can vary greatly depending on who plays them. Some dames like the late great Danny La Rue played very glamorous dames; dames such as the wonderful Les Dawson and Norman Evans were more “mumsy” – which is how I play the part. However, the main dames, who are Widow Twankey, Dame Trott, Sarah the Cook and Mother Goose, are all very similar characters in as much as they are mothers, they are all single, widowed and man-mad. Terry Scott always said that dames should be played like your favourite aunty – they are warm, funny and flirty but you could never imagine them having intimate relations with any man, however much they chase them.
Some dames such as Sarah the Cook have jobs and therefore have a boss which slightly changes the dynamic but in general all dames have the same outlook. When a boss is included in the story such as Alderman Fitzwarren in Dick Whittington, the dame has someone she has to bow down to but even though she is not top dog within the family dynamic she always gets the last word.
How do you personally see the role?
I like to think that I perform a very traditional dame. Personally, I’m not keen on the very feminine, drag-queen type of dame, but that’s just my opinion. I think that there should never be any doubt that the dame is a man in a dress, for me that is where all the comedy comes from.
How have audience reactions – from both children and adults – changed over the years you’ve played Dame?
I’ve only played dame for the past five years so I don’t think I can really make any long term judgement on that as yet. This year does mark my tenth year as the writer and director of the Cambridge Arts Theatre pantomimes, and I have noticed an increase year on year for purely adult audiences. I think that we have built up quite a reputation for quality pantomimes that appeal to both children and adults. My writing partner Stewart Permutt and I try to include jokes that the adults get but that fly over the heads of the children. I’ve seen so many pantomimes that adults begrudgingly attend with their children. I feel very lucky that I have been in the one venue for so many years; you get the chance to really get to know the audience and tailor the shows to their particular tastes.
How does the trend towards having the Principal Boy played by a young man and not a girl affect the Dame’s role?
I can’t answer from experience as I’ve only ever had girls play the roles such as Aladdin, Dick Whittington and Jack Trott. I’ve been very lucky to have Julie Buckfield play my son for the past five years, The Cambridge Arts Theatre and I are sticklers for tradition and I don’t think we’d like to break from that. I think it’s all to do with dynamics at the end of the day, as I mentioned before so much of the humour of the dame comes from the fact that she is a man in a dress, when you have a girl playing the principal boy it just works, it’s worked for years and I truly believe that old adage “if it ain’t broke….”
You write pantomimes as well as act in them. How did that come about?
I trained originally as a stage manager and I was lucky enough to be company manager for Christopher Biggins on many productions. I often used to suggest the odd gag or sketch and when he finished his five-year tenure at the Arts tTheatre in 2000 I was asked if I would like to write the following year’s script. I’d never written anything before but I have a passion for pantomime and variety and I felt that I would like to give it a go. Once I’d written Act One I sent it in and was given the go ahead to finish it. When the entire script was handed in I was asked if I would direct it, I’d never directed either, so at first I said “no” but was told to just direct what I’d seen in my head when I’d written it. So in short I fell into writing and directing. Five years ago Dave Murphy, the chief executive of the Arts Theatre and my co-director asked myself and Scott Ritchie the choreographer to play the Uglies in Cinderella, again it was something I just fell into but in my first year I was picked out as one of the top current dames by the Sunday Telegraph, so I must have been doing something right. Pantomime has given me so much; it has changed my career path and it’s something I could never imagine giving up.
