FROM the sublime to the ridiculous, Rapunzel, a magical tangled tale for all the family, comes hot on the heels of classic suspense story The Turn of the Screw.

“It’s not long enough in between the two!” says Chelsey.

I said I was disappointed not to experience the play for myself. It looked amazing.

“That’s the thing with theatre. It’s only on for a relatively short amount of time - and then it’s gone. But that’s why I love it.

“I wasn’t expecting everyone to almost unanimously enjoy it, because ghost stories aren’t for everyone, but it was a lovely audience reaction. We had a good team on it. Sad to see it go but obviously now we’re ready to do something silly!

“The technical team are a joy. I go ‘can we just fill part of the stage with water?’ and they go ‘we’ll figure it out!’ So yeah, there was a lot of water on the stage for that one - and it rained in a couple of places as well.”

… and that, of course, is why you’re having your roof done!

“That leak has been an absolute nightmare, but it’s being fixed and hopefully we’ll have a watertight building very soon.”

…Why choose Rapunzel?

“We did Jack and the Beanstalk last year; so I wanted to something ‘princessy’ this year to switch it up. I was going through the list of the popular titles and what seemed fun, and then - my nieces are really into Tangled - and I watched that and thought that doesn’t get done as a panto very often.

“We have to pick the panto title more than a year in advance - we announce them when the previous one is on.

“Just as we were about to go into rehearsal for Jack and the Beanstalk I was thinking: That could be fun. How could we make Rapunzel feel like it was in Pembrokeshire? She could just be in a lighthouse rather than the tower. It would be really fun if she was out at sea somewhere, and then all of a sudden it came together very quickly, so her best friend is a puffin.

“It’ll still have all the panto things that we love and expect, but it feels unusual, fresher.

“When I sat down and looked at the Brothers Grimm version of Rapunzel, like them all I went, ‘oh, that’s deeply inappropriate to share - with anyone, let alone children! So it’s definitely a Torch panto version of Rapunzel rather than the traditional story.

“There’s the Prince of Neyland - just because it made me laugh, and Rapunzel’s best friend is a puffin. Our dame, Belinda Beehive, has a little hair salon overlooking the beauties of Gelliswick and Rapunzel is in her lighthouse somewhere along the coast with Mother Gothel, the baddy, and then the equivalent of the good fairy is like a little sea creature who lives somewhere around Milford Marina.

…Is that the creature you had the competition for?

“No, we had the competition for an evil sea creature. Mother Gothel will unleash this horrible sea creature to capture Rapunzel and the other good guys in the second half of the show.

“This whole show has a nautical theme, we came up with a sea monster. We have picked the winner, that hasn’t been announced yet but it’s really great; I’m really excited about it.”

Chelsey confirmed that the entries will be on display in December.

“There were some that were very cute, but they just weren’t evil. Some of the others might make a special appearance this year. It was so much fun going through them and seeing the special powers that some of these creatures might have or the names.

“I’m meeting with our brilliant props maker tomorrow to go through how we’re going to make this sea monster a reality! It is always a challenge, but the team here always rise to the occasion.

“The traditional ghost gag, where the ghost, or the monster, comes out and captures each of them one by one: the monster will be part of that big sequence which is one of the absolute favourites. Everyone loves to be screaming, ‘it’s behind you’ and getting really frustrated when the goodies just ignore the fact that there’s some horrible creature trying to get them, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

… What’s special about pantomimes?

“For me, it was a real family tradition to go to pantomime. It was the only theatre I saw for the first, well, nearly 20 years of my life, apart from the occasional school trip. Panto has always been a festive staple for me.

“I think it’s classic stories that we all sort of know, and there’s a comfort in that. We know there’s going to be goodies, baddies, there’s going to be some peril - it might feel like the goodies might not win but they always do triumph in the end, and in panto the baddy always becomes a goody.

“It’s kind of about coming together at Christmas time and, even if you don’t like your auntie, you can sit around the Christmas table and eat with her. There’s something about the inherent goodness of people in it and usually they’re about some kind of teamwork: I might not be good at this thing and you might not be good at something else, but together we can solve the problem.

“Who doesn’t love a bit of glitter and sparkle, especially in the middle of December when it’s dark and miserable? Songs you can join in with and feel a part of - it’s spectacle that’s joyful.

“The audience interaction is a really big part, because normally you come to the theatre or cinema and you’re told ‘sit down, don’t sneeze, don’t cough, don’t breathe’ but with this it’s all about letting loose and having a bit of anarchy. For kids, it’s that chance to go ‘we’re not stopping you from being kids. Scream, shout, get involved.’

“I love it, I love it, I love it when one of the characters is doing something that we all know they shouldn’t do and we’ve got schools’ audiences in and the kids are losing their voices going ‘no, don’t do it!’

“And then for adults, it’s being able to regain a little of that and feel like a child again.

“The dame is obviously a panto staple. I’m a really big fan of drag and drag queens but for me, being a dame is something slightly different. We’ve got the same dame as last year, Lloyd Grayshon, who is an absolute gem. He’s from Haverfordwest, a professional actor, professional singer and he just looks great in a mini-skirt, so why not add a wig and let him loose on the people of Pembrokeshire?!

“Using the dame is an avenue for a bit of more adult humour which, hopefully, will go over the kids’ heads. Nothing too raunchy but a bit of ‘nudge nudge wink wink’ is part of it.

“My first year here, when I did Beauty and the Beast, people had a lovely time and they really enjoyed it, but they all went, ‘next year, could it just be a little bit dirtier?’ So hopefully last year we delivered on that; this year again there are some jokes for the mums and dads, aunts and uncles, nans and grandads. It should appeal to everybody whether they’re six years old or 96. There should be something in there for everybody to smile at or laugh at.

“Actually, most of it is the way you say it rather than what you say, and Lloyd is really great for that.”

… the school of Carry On!

“Yes, it’s absolutely that. A classic humour that will always be funny. For this one I’ve been watching some old Charlie Chaplin films to be inspired for some of those more physical routines. Yes, there is some funny word play, puns and all the rest of it but ultimately, watching someone fall over is usually funny as long as they’re okay. So all of that will be in this year again.

“It’s kind of my favourite bit to choreograph the slosh scene when all the gunge and goo comes out. And part of the joy of it each year is thinking how can we reinvent this so it still feels fun.”

… It’s a long run, isn’t it? There must be quite a few performances between December 6 and 28?

“Yeah, and we actually open for schools’ audiences on November 26. They’re such a joy.”

… But how to keep it fresh and not think ‘oh, this is tired, I can’t do this anymore’?

“That’s down to the team. To be an actor in panto you just have to love it, because it is exhausting. You have to have so much energy; when you’re met with the force of 300 screaming children you have to be quite robust.

“Because panto is so often part of people’s Christmas tradition, it is a real privilege that you get to be part of their Christmas. The performers love to work with an audience and every audience is different.

“There are some parts of it that have to be choreographed to the second, for safety or for the effect we want to achieve, but actually I leave room and I go ‘if you want to put an extra joke in there tonight, put it in’.

“Things go wrong in panto, because it is kind of chaotic. There was a bit of the show last year that, for some reason always went wrong, but because the actors enjoyed it going wrong so much the audience enjoyed it. And the audience tried to help them solve what was going wrong, and everybody’s laughing - even the stage management team who are normally quite serious.”

… Chelsey told how she took over from one of the actresses who fell ill halfway through a performance.

“And I am not an actor. But we just accepted with the audience: I’m here, I’m going to try my best. I did fall over within 30 seconds of being on the stage. Because the audience were in on the joke with us it was fine.

“In any other show, if a sound cue goes at the wrong time, you think ‘oh no!’ but last year there was a chicken sound effect that would just not behave, and you just had to accept that it was part of the chaos of it all.

“For that long run, there just has to be room for things to happen each night.

“It is a long period, and I’m very grateful for those actors. They get a couple of days off - Christmas and Boxing Day - but they’re not getting much time with their families either so they kind of create a little family here and we’ll do a little Christmas dinner and a Secret Santa backstage.”

…What is the age range of the cast?

“I think our youngest is Holly Mayhew, she’s just graduated from drama school and she’s from Neyland; she’s playing Rapunzel which is amazing. I met her at an open audition for another project and she introduced herself; she’s in her early 20s.

“Then there’s probably a jump up to 30s, 40s. There is a really good spread of ages in this cast. You need more seasoned performers who know how to pace themselves over a six-week performance period and then the young ones who are just full of energy and still very bright eyed.”

For tickets or further details, visit torchtheatre.co.uk or call 01646 695267 | Check back here soon for Part 2 of the interview.