How panto inspires the next generation of theatre-goers

SussexWorld

Anne Smith – whose West End credits include Evita, Chess, Mamma Mia!, Good Rockin Tonite and Annie – is delighted to play the baddie in panto once again.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers and I'm lovely

00:06to speak again to Rachel Stanley. Last year as pantomime in Southampton at the Mayflower,

00:11this year moving down the coast. It's Portsmouth, New Theatre Royal, Beauty and the Beast and

00:17it's December the 13th to January the 5th and you are malevolent in this.

00:22I am.

00:23What a fabulous name for a character. How nasty are you going to be?

00:32Oh, incredibly nasty with a name like that. Oh, yes. I mean, she's, yeah, she's quite

00:40a character. But she's, it's a touch of the Bette Davis, you know.

00:45Oh, yeah.

00:46In there, yes. Bette Davis, Bette Joan Croft, we'll put them all in there.

00:52Fantastic. And you were saying you love playing the villains. Now, what does that say about

00:57you, that you love playing the villains?

01:00I know, what does it say about me? Well, because I'm normally very nice, you see. So, I like

01:08to play the opposite.

01:09Really? So, where does the stage villainy come from, then?

01:14How do you mean? As in, as in for me, how do I get on with it?

01:17Yeah, if you're a naturally nice person.

01:20Oh, I think we've all got a dark side. So, you know, I just, it's just, it's just a lot

01:25of fun. I just love, I just love the interaction with the audience. I love the boo. It's just

01:30a lot of fun to play someone evil when it's not, you play something opposite. It's just

01:36a great, it's just great to be a bad, I mean, there's not much more to say on the matter.

01:41It's just so, such good fun. And you get a great costume as well.

01:45As we can see.

01:46I always like that.

01:48And moving from the massive Mayflower at Southampton to the much more intimate New Theatre Royal.

01:53It'll be a different kind of performance, won't it? A very different kind of theatre.

01:57Yeah, a much more intimate, and it's a very pretty theatre. Yeah, it'll be a much more

02:03intimate performance. I'll be able to, you know, pick on people. I'll see them a bit

02:08more because it's so, the Southampton Mayflower is so massive. There's such a big gap between

02:14us and the audience, but there's not, so people better beware.

02:18So there's no escape for the audience then?

02:20Oh, no.

02:22And if someone looks away, you just get the next person?

02:24Yes, yeah. Yeah, I'll get them.

02:28It sounds fantastic. Well, really lovely to speak to you again. Thank you for your time.

02:33Lovely to speak to you too.

02:34Looking forward to seeing your malevolence in Horsemouth.

02:37Oh, great. Thank you. Thank you. Looking forward to it myself.

02:41Thank you. Bye-bye then.

02:42Thank you. Bye-bye.

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