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Last year, Southern Ontario’s Lighthouse Festival brought an old tradition to a whole new audience: A holiday pantomime. The risk paid off.
“It was like baby turtles to the sea,” said Jonathan Ellul, the director of 2023’s panto Jack and the Beanstalk, in an interview. Ellul returns to Lighthouse this fall to helm 2024’s panto, Cinderella.
“About 10 minutes in, everyone was right on board opening night,” he continued. “During the reception, a man came up to me. He was a dad with little kids, and I could see that his parents were with him too.
“He took my hand and thanked me,” said Ellul, “because [his family] had just emigrated from England, [where the panto tradition originated], and in his mind he’d accepted that they weren’t going to see any more pantos. He welled up with tears and told me, ‘To see my kids and my parents sitting together having a wonderful time has made my whole Christmas.’ So that was my personal win.”
“I was born in England,” said Jane Spence, Lighthouse Festival’s new artistic director, in a separate interview. “When we came to Canada, [pantomime] was a tradition my mother sought out. It was magical, because I’d never gone to theatre where you could interact before.”
As per panto tradition, Cinderella will feature audience call-and-response, topical zingers, and loving nods to the local community, framed by an irreverent retelling of a classic fairytale. Jack and the Beanstalk’s playwright, Ken MacDougall, will once again pen the script for the show.
“Ken is brilliant,” said Ellul. “He’s very funny, and if he knows the actors [in the panto] — if he’s seen their work, or he’s worked with them — you can actually hear their voices in the lines he gives them.”
Like its predecessor, Cinderella will feature an all-star cast whose comic chops fit the panto tradition like custom-made glass slippers. The ensemble includes Helen Belay (Come Home: The Legend of Daddy Hall) as Prince Charming, Raquel Duffy (Appropriate) as the Fairy Godmother, and Katie Edwards (Jack in the Beanstalk) as Cinderella. Sal Figliomeni — who played last year’s pantomime dame — and Steve Gauci will play Lustyria and Dandi, Cinderella’s stepsisters.
There to highlight the actors’ tomfoolery is drummer, singer, and instrumentalist Brad Hart, who recently released his first solo album, Notes Like Ghosts. Hart will play live on stage and “is going to become a kind of commenter on the show,” said Ellul. “My hope is, as the show goes on, he’ll become more and more involved until he’s practically a full character: the reluctant drummer who gets wound up in the chaos.”
Ellul first became involved with panto as a young actor, via the Stirling Festival Theatre in Hastings County, Ontario. In 1998, Stirling’s then-artistic director and founder Caroline Smith hired Ellul, as well as MacDougall, to perform in Stirling’s own version of Jack and the Beanstalk. Ellul continued performing in pantos at Stirling Festival into the 2000s, as well as in Ross Petty’s touring production of Aladdin in 2006.
“Having done pantos myself, I know that [the best] ideas come out of rehearsal, where the actors are just playing,” Ellul said. “Part of directing is reminding myself to graciously accept new ideas and willingly let go of what I’d had in mind.”
In her interview, Spence noted that Ellul’s comic prowess as an actor makes him the perfect match for panto’s generous spirit. “I had the pleasure of watching Jonathan when he did The Foursome [by Norm Foster] here,” she said. “He was so funny that, several times during the show, the other actors had to wait for the audience to stop laughing long enough to say the next line. I think he’s a comedic genius.”
Spence’s predecessor, Derek Ritschel, was the driving force behind bringing panto to Lighthouse. It was Ritschel who asked Ellul to direct Jack and the Beanstalk, in another risk that more than paid off: Although Ellul is a veteran actor, last year’s pantomime was his first experience directing.
“It was really not even on my radar,” said Ellul. When Ritschel asked, “‘Would you consider directing?’ I was like, ‘Hell yes.’ The words just came out of my mouth. [I thought,] I can help anybody feel confident and tell a story in that style. That’s my comfort zone, my wheelhouse.”
Reflecting on it now, “I’ve been directing for a long time in other ways,” shared Ellul, who also works as a photographer and portrait artist. “I really want to make people feel confident and comfortable in front of the camera.””
Still, “it was Derek who helped bring [directing] to the surface in me,” Ellul said. “I didn’t realize he saw me as a leader. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn.”
Ellul remembered that Ritschel told him, “‘You don’t have to be the director with all the decisions made ahead of time. Think of yourself as the extra artist in the room, keeping everyone safe and keeping fun at the centre, at the heart.’ That was the best advice I’ve ever heard.”
Cinderella runs at the Lighthouse Theatre in Port Dover November 28 to December 8, and at the Roselawn Theatre in Port Colborne December 12 to 15. Tickets are available here.
WRITTEN BY
Nathaniel Hanula-James
Nathaniel Hanula-James is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who has worked across Canada as a dramaturg, playwright, performer, and administrator.
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