Hotwells pantomime

The tickets are sold out weeks before the event to theatre-goers coming from far and wide, yet the production hasn't even been advertised.

This is the Hotwells pantomime – written by locals for locals which has become something of an institution as it heads towards its 30th anniversary.

There's no doubt that in this small corner of Bristol the home-made panto is a major event in the community calendar.

"It's the hottest ticket in town. People get so desperate about getting a ticket that we should be putting them on eBay," jokes Gill Loats, one of the two co-producers of this year's offering, Robin Hood and the Babes In The Wood.

"It's not two pantos," says Gill. "It's a mixture of the two stories, loosely speaking".

Isn't Christmas normally the season for pantos? I ask. "Yes, but this tradition of staging it in March began with the first panto in 1981," says Gill, who is co-directing with local architect Amanda Webb. "A group of Hotwells people said they were all busy before Christmas and that January and February were devilish months – a depressing time.

"So they said 'Let's put on a panto in March to cheer ourselves up' and it's gone on from there."

Work on each production starts towards the end of November when a small group of Hotwellians meets to decide which panto they want to stage.

"They plot the synopsis and different groups write different scenes. They get back together later on to see if it all makes sense and a group of editors checks everything for continuity," explains Gill.

"We do the casting in the new year and rehearse every Tuesday night in January and February," she adds.

About 100 people are involved in each show, some acting, some back stage and others carrying out front-of-house roles.

"There's a good cross-section of people taking part, from the very young to those of a certain age," says Gill, who's also a producer with the Show of Strength Theatre Company based in south Bristol. "We've got teachers, civil servants, shopkeepers, architects and social workers and many of them have been involved since the start."

The set is designed by Janet Margrie an art historian who heard about the pantomime while on a coach in Germany and decided to move her home from Dorset to the Polygon in Hotwells.

She says: "I was on an educational tour and a chap on the bus told me about the Hotwells pantomime. I was living in darkest Dorset, where nothing happens, and so moved here. I've been designing sets for more than 20 years and have got a wonderful team of helpers who construct them. All the work is done in a barn in Abbots Leigh in sub-zero temperatures.

Now we've got the use of a barn, we can store the sets there. In the past they were thrown into a skip after each panto."

The show has its own orchestra "and that's quite unusual these days," adds Gill. "The musicians dress up and have a different theme each year, and this is a closely guarded secret. Even I don't know what it will be until the opening night.

"There are several choruses, too. One of them is called the Ambras after a local street name. Some of the chorus line have been involved since the start, too. There will be lots of thigh slapping and local references in the script. When there's a local issue this gets woven into the storyline. I think car parking gets mentioned this year and every panto is set in a place called Howellia.

After the four-night run, a group of people will gather to disburse the ticket money. It always goes to support charities and organisations in the Hotwells area. Last year, about £4,000 was raised.

Production costs are kept to a minimum, with all the cast making their own costumes.

"Not only do we get the cast's families coming along but people who once lived here keep coming back," says Gill.

This year's panto runs from Wednesday (March 4) until next Saturday (March 7) at the Hope Community Church, in Hotwells. The show is already sold out