Christmas officially starts in Peel this weekend, and once the town’s festive decorations are switched on, then the panto season begins!

Once again, the Peel Pantoloons will present this year’s Christmas show and will literally swing into action at the Peel Centenary Centre with an all-action and entertaining production of Peter Pan.

The pantomime opens on Sunday, December 1, with a matinee at 2pm, followed by evening shows on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7pm, and two final shows on Saturday, December 7, at 2pm and 7.30pm.

Tim Keyes will star as the boy who never grew up, and will be joined by a cast of local Pantoloons regulars, including Andy Whitmore as the dastardly Captain Hook, Kayleigh Smart and Emma Mitchell as the Darling children and Mark Britten as Mr Darling.

Sixteen-year-old Erin Kelly will perform her first lead role as Wendy Darling and she will be joined by Victoria Reynolds as Smee, Dave Harding as the Indian chief and Michelle Cain as Tinkerbell the fairy.

Peter Pan will be directed by a long-time member of the Peel Pantoloons group, Mel Read, who will also be playing two roles in the play: Mrs Darling and the crocodile.

She said that creating a pantomime around Peter Pan, especially on the Centenary Centre stage, has come with many logistical hurdles.

’Peter Pan takes place against a lot of different scenes,’ said Mel.

’There are lots of different locations, like pirate ships, Neverneverland and so on, and we have had to paint a lot of curtain backdrops to make these different scenes.

’That has been down to our artistic director, Katie Parton, along with her team of helpers, who have done a brilliant job designing and creating them.

’Obviously we don’t know how to fly, so we have had to work our way around the flying scenes.

’We have had to use few little tricks and techniques for flying scenes which hopefully will work and look pretty effective.

’I don’t want to say how and we don’t want to spoil anything for the audience, but we hope it will be a nice surprise for people.’

Despite the hordes of lost boys, the pirates, Indians and flying children, the panto will have a distinctly local feel to it.

’We have adapted quite a bit of the play,’ said Mel.

’I have added a few comic sketches in and we obviously have to adapt the play to the stage we have.

’One big change we have made is that the action doesn’t begin in London, rather it actually starts in Peel.

’I have also put local jokes in there too as our pantos always have a local feel.’

This is Mel’s 15th appearance for the Peel Pantoloons and since directing her first panto, Sleeping Beauty, in 2006 she has been at the helm of 12 pantos for the western theatre group.

’I recently had a couple of years away from directing, but I still took on small roles in the plays,’ she said.

’That makes me the longest standing pantoloon.

’One of my favourite pantos was Cinderella, in 2014.

’I directed that one, but due to an injured shoulder I didn’t act in it.

’I really liked having the chance to direct the play and get it ready for the stage, but then sit back and watch it happen. I don’t often have the chance to actually watch our shows, so that was a nice change.’

Tickets for Peter Pan have sold out online, but there are tickets on sale at Celtic Gold in Peel.

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers