When the Adam Smith Theatre closed its doors for refurbishment in 2020, OnFife Museums were offered a collection of programmes, photographs and posters dating from the 1970s to present day. Amongst them material from the yearly pantomime. After a two-year break, our pantomime returns this Christmas at the Rothes Halls while the Adam Smith Theatre redevelopment continues. It wouldn’t be a pantomime without singing, dancing, slapstick comedy, audience participation (He’s behind you!) and of course the Dame with their extravagant costumes. Let’s take a dance down memory lane and look at the pantomimes of Christmas past at the Adam Smith Theatre.
In 1981, The Harman Brothers (known to many as The Chuckle Brothers) made their first of three appearances at The Adam Smith Theatre in Puss in Boots.
Poster for Puss In Boots featuring the Harman Brothers in 1981, FIFER:2022.0141
In 1982 they returned to play Policemen Yoo and Mee in Aladdin, alongside Danny O’Dea as Window Twanky and Dean Park as Wishee Washee.
LEFT: Poster for Aladdin in 1982, FIFER:2022.0141 RIGHT: The Harman Brothes (as Yoo and Mee) with Danny O’Dea (Widow Twanky), FIFER:2022.0095
In 1983, The Harman Brothers’ third appearance – this time as the Wicked Robbers in Robin Hood and The Babes in the Wood.
LEFT: Poster for Robin Hood and The Babes in the wood in 1983, FIFER:2022.0141 RIGHT: The Harman brothers as Will and Wont with John Buick as the Sheriff, FIFER:2022.0096
In 1988, another famous face took to the stage in an adaptation of the nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty, written and directed by Adam Smith Theatre’s General Manager Brian Freeland.
LEFT: Poster for Humpty Dumpty in 1988, FIFER:2022.0141 RIGHT: Joe Pasquale as Humpty Dumpty with Alasdair McDonald as Mother Hubbard, FIFER:2022.0100
1999 saw James McAvoy as Bobby Buckfast the daft wee son of Betty Buckfast (Alan McHugh). Together Betty and Bobby worked together to protect Beauty (Fiona Steele) and see that she came to no harm from Sadista the Sorceress (Anita Vettesse).
LEFT: Cover of programme for Beauty and the Beast, FIFER:2022.0069 RIGHT: Bobby Buckfast (James McAvoy, left), Sadista the Sorceress (Anita Vettesse, middle) and Betty Buckfast (Alan McHugh, right), FIFER:2022.0104
What an amazing costume Dame Betty Buckfast is wearing above! Extravagant, bright and very on subject of the time with the 2000 detail. Dames’ costumes often reflect the local area and current matters. In this case marking the coming millennium.
Mother Goose in 1975, FIFER:2022.0091
LEFT: Burden and Moran (the Ugly Sisters) with Colin Cresswell (Baron Hardup) in Cinderella in 1982, FIFER:2022.0094 RIGHT: Mary Lee as Jessie the Cook with cow in Dick Whittington in 1984, FIFER:2022.0097
LEFT: Nurse Polly Esther (James Murray) with Queen Semolina (Eileen McCallum) and King Tapioca (Martyn James) In Sleeping Beauty in 1995, FIFER:2022.0102 RIGHT: Alan McHugh as Jack’s Ma in Jack in the Beanstalk in 2000, FIFER:2022.0105
Programme for Mother Goose in 2015 featuring Billy Mack, FIFER:2022.0071
Programme for Jack and the Beanstalk in 2019, FIFER:2022.0071
The last pantomime to be held at The Adam Smith Theatre before it closed for its redevelopment was Jack and the Beanstalk.
What are your favourite memories of the Adam Smith Theatre pantos? Share them in the comments below! Happy panto season!
