Panto pandemonium is promised at the Regal Theatre this festive season. Ara Jansen meets Dixie Farinosi as the show’s producer and star baddie gears up for a fun production of Pinocchio.
It’s not often you’re encouraged to boo the baddies, but at this year’s Christmas pantomime you’ll be encouraged to do just that. As loudly as you can.
The much-loved end-of-year tradition of the pantomime returns to the Regal Theatre for lots of fun and merriment. This year’s show is Pinocchio, the mischievous adventures of an animated wooden marionette who longs to become human, just like his creator and father-figure Geppetto.
“I’ll be playing one of the cheeky villains,” says Pinocchio’s producer and creative director of Zealous Productions, Dixie Farinosi. Previous Zealous productions have included The Addams Family A New Musical Comedy, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty.
A musical theatre veteran, when Dixie realised she was never going to be a backup dancer for Michael Jackson or Paula Abdul, she went to WAAPA and did stage management. Now she’s able to combine her favourite things – producing shows and getting on stage to perform.
“I work backstage, perform on stage and I sing in bands. I get the best of all worlds. I understand the technical aspects of putting on a show too. The first time I produced and played a character was Morticia from The Addams Family (as pictured above). I found that being on stage helped me clearly see everything that was going on with the whole production – on stage and backstage. Rather than just watching, I feel it works in my favour if I am both producing and performing in the show.”
Dixie lived and worked in the UK and it was there she fell in love with pantomime – known lovingly as panto. She saw big productions and community panto which played to just 100 people but they were always such fun.
“Years later, when COVID first hit, I decided to produce our first pantomime at the Regal and got such positive feedback, especially from people from the UK who couldn’t go back for Christmas and who wanted to keep their panto tradition alive. That built a following with UK families and now the Aussie families who have been introduced to it love it too.”
Dixie loves that it’s good, clean fun for the whole family – the naughty jokes go over the kids’ heads and the adults have something to titter about. Plus, for many young kids, it’s their first exposure to live theatre.
A panto is traditionally a fairytale, rather than a Christmas tale, but the show often finishes with a rousing carol where everyone sings along. Dixie gets her scripts from the award-winning Tom Whalley Pantomime Scripts, which configure popular fairytales for a panto format and inject them with plenty of hilarity.
“Tom is young and fun and re-writes the scripts and makes them really relevant. It’s a fairytale full of jokes which encourages audience participation. It encourages kids and adults alike to scream and to get up and dance. Of course everyone is encouraged to boo the baddies. Sometimes the audience is deafening and it’s wonderful to hear the sound as it rolls from the lounge up to the dress circle of the theatre. We definitely encourage it!”
There’s even the odd heckler, usually dealt with in a witty way.
“If you’re in the cast, you definitely have to keep on your toes and know what you’re doing.”
Pinocchio is at the Regal Theatre from December 13 – 24. Shows are 2pm and 6pm with an 11.30am and 4.30pm show on Christmas Eve.
