Chris Aukett returns to Portsmouth’s New Theatre Royal for panto this year

SussexWorld

Aladdin will be running from Friday, December 8 until Sunday, December 31 (with a BSL signed performance on December 17 and relaxed performance on December 31), delivered by Jordan Productions.

Transcript

00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Well, speaking

00:06 to someone who probably needs no introduction, Wydia Twankey no less, otherwise known as

00:11 Chris Orkett. Now you are going to be at the Portsmouth New Theatre Royal this Christmas

00:16 and it's a lovely gig to do, isn't it? It brings back happy memories of you were there

00:20 two years ago.

00:21 Yeah, two years ago. I absolutely love it here. The building's beautiful, the people

00:26 are amazing. There's such a positive vibe here at the theatre and I always enjoy going

00:35 back to venues where it's like that, where you're coming back and you're seeing the

00:39 same faces and they value their staff and they're still here and they've got, you

00:43 know, a positive job to do here. And I also really like the fact where it feels like you're

00:49 not separate to the staff of the theatre and everyone gets involved and everyone comes

00:55 to the party at the end. So it's really lovely to be back.

00:58 It's always a fabulously friendly theatre there. But the lovely thing this year won't

01:01 be, two years ago you were just at the tail end of the pandemic, weren't you? So there

01:06 was a degree of caution, wasn't there?

01:09 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it didn't feel the same. We had to stay away from each other.

01:15 It was always dressing room door shut when you're in there. The only time that we could

01:21 really connect and be together was on stage. And there definitely was then a disconnect

01:26 between us and the crew and stuff like that. So it's going to be really lovely this year

01:31 to be able to enjoy each other and also have a Ribena.

01:35 Plus, you're breaking the habit of a lifetime in panto. You're going to be nice to the children

01:40 after a panto career of being mean to them.

01:42 I am, yeah. Or try to. A bit of ugly sister might just pop out.

01:49 Brilliant. Well, lovely to speak to you. Have a fantastic time in Portsmouth this Christmas.

01:54 Thank you very much. Cheers.

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