Bawdy innuendo and farcical fun in Beauty and the Big Beast panto for adults on tour to Chesterfield

Beauty and the Big Beast, touring to Chesterfeld’s Winding Wheel Theatre on February 9, 2024, is packed with fast-moving, farcical fun and bawdy innuendo.

Kirk Foster, artistic director of The Market Theatre Company Adult Panto, said: “The Adult Panto differs from others you might find in that it is much more of a farcical comedy play than a typical pantomime twisted with adult references. It relies on the idea that a team of just three actors must play all the characters and tell the story while everything goes wrong around them with lots of innuendo thrown in for good measure! The Adult Panto really does appeal to everyone from ages 18–80!”

Production manager Glyn Doggett said: “One of the things I love about our adult panto’s is that we are constantly surprising audiences with where we take the original story and characters, that’s part of what makes us different. It all ends in confusion giving it a big farcical finish which has become our trademark.”

This year’s show is performed by the same team as last year’s hit Cinderella and her Naughty Buttons. Hertfordshire based performers Nick Hooton and Jemma Carlisle play the Beast and Beauty respectively, and Bristol based actor Eleanor Pead plays Beauty’s stepmother. The three also play a host of other characters between them meaning that they are very rarely offstage for the entire performance.

Beauty and the Big Beast uses a minimum of props and costumes.

The Stage newspaper called the panto: “Quintessetially British….Like a Carry On film made by a Rugby Club.”

The Market Theatre Company Adult Panto started life in the company’s own small-scale venue in Hitchin in Hertfordshire with a four-week run back in 1996. Beauty and the Big Beast is running for more than three months during its current tour with the company travelling from Wrexham to Clacton, Exeter to Glasgow and everywhere in between.

The show, which carries an 18+ guidance, will start at 7.30pm at the Winding Wheel Theatre. Tickets cost £22.20. Book online at www.chesterfieldtheatres.co.uk