Graham Smith: Playing Dame Nellie Nickerlastic in his first pantomime since 2022
GRAHAM Smith, once the doyen of Rowntree Players pantomime dames in York, is moving on to panto pastures new with Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre after a three-year hiatus from the frocks and quips.
Yorkshireman Graham, who lives on farmland near Wilberfoss, will revel in the moniker of Dame Nellie Nickerlastic in Richard Waud’s production of Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood at Shiptonthorpe Village Hall in two clusters of performances from tomorrow to Sunday, then next Friday and Saturday.
“It came about by accident,” says Graham, who lives 11 minutes from Shiptonthorpe. “I put some left-overs from a building project on Nextdoor [the neighbourhood app], and this guy got in touch and said he’d have them.”
The conversation led on to a recollection of Graham’s days in the Rowntree Players panto and a suggestion that he should contact the Shiptonthorpe group. “I thought it would be too late for this year’s show, but I rang Richard [Waud] anyway and I think he thought I might see it as beneath me, but it certainly isn’t,” he says.
“Over the years I’ve done touring pantomimes; I’ve done school-hall pantomimes; I’ve even done a convent in North Wales. They were days spent in and out of a van, doing maybe two shows a day.
“I said to Richard, ‘all I’m concerned about is making sure I do my best and that everyone does theirs – happy days’. I offered to play in the comedy duo, the baddie, whatever, but for the first scene in the auditions Richard asked me to read for the dame…then the second scene, then the opening to Act Two!
“Then Richard asked, ‘Does anyone else want to have a go?’, and someone said, ‘What? After that!’. When I got home, there was a message on my phone from Richard to say, Graham, we’d love you to do it’. He must have contacted me within ten minutes of finishing the auditions.”
Graham first played the dame for Rowntree Players in 2004, appearing as Dottie Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, after two years in the panto’s comedy duo, and retained the role until 2022.
On resuming pantomime’s most celebrated part, he says: “I think the dame is a specialist role. I’m fortunate enough to be fairly quick-witted, so if anything unexpected comes up, rather than ‘corpsing’ [the theatrical term for an actor breaking out of character into uncontrollable, unscripted laughter on stage], I’ll usually have a quick response.
“That’s why I played dame for Rowntree Players for so many years and why Shiptonthorpe were keen for me to do it this time.”
Graham, who has worked in the York hospitality trade for almost 30 years as proprietor of the Georgian House & Mews in Bootham, had first donned the dame’s dresses away from a theatre stage. “Bizarrely, it was at a friend of mine’s hair salon called Balta in York,” he recalls. “They did a pantomime for charity as one of his workforce was theatrical and would put on a show for four of five nights for customers and friends at the salon, which he wrote and directed.
“I believe we did three of them, and I took to the dame like a duck to water. I’m very comfortable in my own skin being camp on a stage – and the bizarre thing is that, as the dame, I find I can flirt equally with the men and the women in the audience.
“I was only thinking about this the other day: how the dame can have women giggling just as easily as making the blokes feel embarrassed!”
Joining Graham in Waud’s cast will be Neil Scott, Shiptonthorpe’s former “beloved and renowned dame”, now taking on a regal new role as King Richard; Toby Jewsen as Robin Hood; Chris McKenzie, Little John; Henry Rice, Will Scarlett; Paul Jefferson, Friar Tuck; Alison Rosa, Sheriff of Nottingham, and Chloe Jensen, Maid Marion.
Further roles in the Alan P Frayn-scripted show will go to Robbie Howe as Snivel and Phil Featherstone as Grovel; Sienna Cayton, Ella; Pelham Dennis, Sam; Carolyne Jensen, Poet; Sarah Burnell, Minstrel, and Shirley Rice, Lady Guy.
“For a village-hall show, the set looks fantastic, the digital lighting system, sound and mixing desk are all of a high standard and all the cast will have radio microphones,” says Graham.
“In rehearsal, Richard has been quite a laidback director about making little changes. For the way I speak, as a Yorkshireman, some of the lines don’t work, sometimes the words jar, so Richard has been happy for me to make adjustments.”
Discover the results from tonight when Graham is dame for a laugh once more.
Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre in Robin Hood And The Babes In The Wood, Shiptonthorpe Village Hall, Shiptonthorpe, near Market Weighton, tomorrow, 7pm; Saturday, 3pm and 7pm; Sunday, 2pm; February 6 and 7, 7pm. Tickets are available from Richard Waud on 07922 443639 or by emailing richardwaud@yahoo.co.uk.