THE show will go on this Christmas. 

Theatre Royal Winchester has announced a panto-styled play called Four Dames in Search of a Panto, set to run in December. 

Social distancing measures will be in place including the removal of every other row of seats in the auditorium and leaving two empty seats in between each family. 

Face masks must be worn by everyone over the age of 11 unless the customer is exempt. 

Hand sanitizer stations will be in place throughout the building, a one-way system will be set up and the venue has increased its cleaning routine throughout, with regular disinfection of the auditorium, foyer and toilet areas.

Deryck Newland, chief executive of Play to the Crowd the charity that runs Theatre Royal Winchester comments: “We know how important our pantomime is to so many families in Winchester and beyond. 

“After we made the heartbreaking decision to postpone Aladdin until next year we promised we would do our best to put something on in its place. 

“We are delighted that the same creative team behind our hugely successful pantomimes will be returning with Four Dames in Search of a Panto, with four familiar faces to our panto audiences in the cast.”

The show will be written and directed by James Barry with original music by Simon Slater. 

Last year Mr Barry was nominated for Best Script in the Great British Pantomine Awards for Dick Whittington, and the previous year, together with composer

Simon Slater, was nominated for Musical Achievement for Beauty and The Beast.
“Our brief for this Christmas was to make the show feel as close as possible to our usual pantomime style, not only by bringing back our favourite cast regulars, but by also ensuring that all the ingredients our audiences know and love are in there,” said Mr Barry.

“The show will feature panto set pieces, hilarious gags (plus some very corny ones too), original songs and lots, lots more - all guaranteed to fill everyone, young and old, with some much needed Christmas cheer.”
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