Hutton Rudby Dramatic Society to perform 80th pantomime

The society was formed in 1920 and performed its first pantomime, Aladdin, in 1946 at Hutton Rudby Village Hall.

The group is set to perform Aladdin again this year to mark the milestone and bring the show into the 21st century with a script by Alan Frayn.

The group has said that although over the years it has expanded lighting and sound abilities as well as having a larger props collection, the “very special village panto ‘feel’” has remained the same.

The group, formed in 1920, performed operas before putting on its first pantomime.

Hutton Rudby Dramatic Society said the first pantomime had “Lighting and props were pretty basic,” and included “improvisation was the name of the game,” with cast members “some of the cast wearing their own pyjamas.”

Ladies had to paint their legs with ‘wet wipe’ due to no tights being available after the Second World War.

The group put on three performances, starting on Boxing Day.

This started the tradition for the Hutton Rudby Village Hall Choral and Dramatic Society, who performed operatic theatre until 1946.

Since then, the society has performed pantomimes, including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Mother Goose, Ali Baba, Peter Pan, Babes in the Wood, and many more.

Hutton Rudby Dramatic Society said: “Over the past seventy-nine years, the Society has performed all the well-known panto favourites including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Mother Goose, Ali Baba, Peter Pan, Babes in the Wood, and many others.

“It has also staged some less well-known scripts – The Little Mermaid, Tom the Pipers Son, King Arthur, Robin Hood, The White Cat and, memorably, Smuut’s Saga, a Viking panto which saw the stage transformed into the prow of a Viking longship!”

Hutton Rudby was faced with the challenge of covid in 2021, but ensured “the show must go on” online with a digital performance written especially by Jill Turner and filmed by Mikey Beard.

Looking towards their 80th year, the Society chose to mark another “very special occasion” by bringing back Aladdin, one of the shows they have performed six times since the first in 1946.

They brought it into the 21st century with a script by Alan Frayn.

They said: “However, what has not changed since that first show, is that very special village panto ‘feel’ – something which the glitzy, star-laden cast shows of the West End simply cannot emulate.”