Being completely wicked at the Mayflower this Christmas

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be at the venue this Christmas from December 9-31.

“I am returning to panto after a few years away,” says Rachel. “I was in Paris last year doing 42nd Street at Chatelet. In fact it was my second time in Paris for Christmas. I also did Funny Girl out there but then Covid struck and put paid to everything and then I got breast cancer which put paid to another year. That was 2021. I was off work for a whole year. I was diagnosed in the January and I was finally back on stage the following January. It was a very hard year but I am a survivor and I do think that attitude helps. I live on my own. It was just me because of Covid and I was not allowed anybody with me for the diagnosis or for the treatment but I think you just have to be strong. You have to prepare yourself to fight it and you just have to know that the medical staff and everyone was just absolutely brilliant. You just have to know that you can put the greatest trust in them.”

Inevitably it was an experience that has changed her: “I know I appreciate things a lot more now. I'm grateful for so much more. And every day I notice that I'm so grateful that I'm just still here for another day. But I think being in this industry really helped me as well. It's therapy. I love the therapy of being on stage and I love being around theatre folk. It just takes your mind away from things.”

And panto certainly does that: “Panto is all about craziness basically. It is about the joy, it is about the storytelling and it is about getting the whole family together. It is something the whole family can enjoy together from the really tiny tots to the grandparents, just everyone involved together and enjoying the same show. It's just such a wonderful thing to do.

“And I love playing the villain. I love it because I like to think it is so far away from my own character! It is proper acting! But I just love being booed and if you don't get booed, then you haven't done your job.”

Just how far can she push the villainy then?

“Well, in Dartford the cleaners complained that the kids were wetting their seats! I'm quite proud of that! But my Wicked Queen is quite camp as well as being a villain. It’s all part of the fun. I'm really looking forward to it. The last time I was in Southampton with Christopher Biggins, I was Cinderella. I think I was the oldest Cinderella in the business! I think that would have been about 2008 or 2009 when I was in my late 30s but we had a fantastic time.”

Opposite her, Kirsty is loving being Snow White for the third time: “It’s the magic I love. The first time I did it we were in Newcastle and then we were in Southend-on-Sea and now I'm back again. It is such a lovely role to play. She is the princess! She is quite gentle but she is also very bright and full of energy. Or at least she is when I play her. I make her full of energy. But that is panto. It has got to be so heightened. It has also got to be great fun.

“Snow White was my first panto and I just really loved doing it. It was not something that I was looking to do but I had an audition with Michael Harrison who directed the Newcastle pantomime and I was lucky enough to get Snow White. I think I was just really lucky. I just want to be singing and acting and dancing, I've got all those lovely songs from the movie in this.”