Ya beauty! It’s curtain up for the Glasgow Arts Community touring pantomime

There’s nothing like a dame – especially a pantomime dame from Weegieville.
Top left:  Beauty (Storm Skyler McClure) and The Beast (Trevor OConnell); Top Right: Pantomime Dame Betty Blumenthal (Kevin Lennon) and her son, Boaby (Andrew Marley); above:  left to right: Witch Deadly Nightshade (Nesha Caplan), Betty Blumenthal (Kevin Lennon); Prince Sebastian/The Beast (Trevor OConnell); Beauty (Storm Skyler McClure); Boaby (Andrew Marley); Agnes, the castle housekeeper (Elaine M Ellis).
Photos: Brian HartleyTop left:  Beauty (Storm Skyler McClure) and The Beast (Trevor OConnell); Top Right: Pantomime Dame Betty Blumenthal (Kevin Lennon) and her son, Boaby (Andrew Marley); above:  left to right: Witch Deadly Nightshade (Nesha Caplan), Betty Blumenthal (Kevin Lennon); Prince Sebastian/The Beast (Trevor OConnell); Beauty (Storm Skyler McClure); Boaby (Andrew Marley); Agnes, the castle housekeeper (Elaine M Ellis).
Photos: Brian Hartley
Top left: Beauty (Storm Skyler McClure) and The Beast (Trevor OConnell); Top Right: Pantomime Dame Betty Blumenthal (Kevin Lennon) and her son, Boaby (Andrew Marley); above: left to right: Witch Deadly Nightshade (Nesha Caplan), Betty Blumenthal (Kevin Lennon); Prince Sebastian/The Beast (Trevor OConnell); Beauty (Storm Skyler McClure); Boaby (Andrew Marley); Agnes, the castle housekeeper (Elaine M Ellis). Photos: Brian Hartley

A former wedding planner, pasta-maker and debt collector variously known as Confetti Betty, Spaghetti Betty and Machete Betty, the principal wummin of the Glasgow Arts Community Touring Pantomime, 2019, now works as a chef in the stifling kitchen of Castle Clydeside.

And when the curtain rose in Darnley Community Centre at the first performance of the show’s Christmas run, she introduced herself as Sweaty Betty Blumenthal: a poor wee widow wummin who works as a chef in the stifling kitchen of Castle Clydeside, cooking dinners for a man they call The Beast.

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Sweaty Betty Blumenthal is played by well-known actor Kevin Lennon, and her master (played by Trevor O’Connell) is really a handsome prince, of course, who’s been cursed by a wicked witch (Nesha Caplan) in Alan McHugh’s hilarious version of the time-honoured fairy-tale, Beauty And The Beast.

And by the time the curtain fell, his fortunes had been transformed thanks to a plucky Glasgow beauty (played by Storm Skyler McClure). But not before the audience had laughed, booed, hissed and yelled “It’s behind you!” along to the madcap mishaps and hilarious banter of Dame Betty and her hapless son, Boaby (Andrew Marley).

Adapted and directed by Julie Brown with musical direction from Karen MacIvor, this year’s Glasgow Arts Community Pantomime will play at 14 community venues across Glasgow this month, including Barmulloch, Castlemilk and Knightswood, as well as Lodging House Mission – a Glasgow-based charity dedicated to providing care and support to homeless, vulnerable and socially excluded people.

With 21 performances scheduled, some 4,000 people are expected to see the show, which is aimed at a wide demographic including families, primary schoolchildren, youth groups and vulnerable adults.

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First staged in 2009, the Glasgow Arts Community Pantomime brings Yuletide cheer and high-quality theatre to the places where people live at prices they can afford.

“The value of this professional Christmas touring pantomime is huge,” says Mari Binnie who, along with fellow Glasgow Arts producer Jon Pope, has been producing those community pantomimes for the past decade.

“The fact that audiences are always at or near capacity speaks for itself. In past years, I’ve stood at the door saying goodbye to audiences at community centres and heard from adults and children alike about how good it is to have such fun-filled, joyful performances on their doorsteps – and at an affordable price that means they can bring a whole family or group along.”

Here’s to the next 10 years of Glasgow Arts Community Panto magic.