Dream team back again as Martyn makes it 21 pantomimes in Eastbourne
This year Martyn Knight makes it 21 pantomimes in Eastbourne – and around 35 in all – when he takes to the stage in Peter Pan at the Devonshire Park Theatre this Christmas (December 5-January 11).
Clearly, he loves it: “It is a time to be stupid! We were sitting next to each other the other day and we didn't even know what we were laughing at. I said what on earth are we laughing at? I am nearly 70 but we were just sitting there giggling and it was lovely. It's fantastic to be with a group of like-minded people, and when you're with a group of like-minded people we are all young at heart. We're all just kids really and I think that’s what people need right now.
“For three hours parents can forget about taxes and the horrible wars that are going on in the world and they can just have three hours of escapism. And it's the same for us when we perform. It's not real life but it's a way of enjoying a laugh and just being with your whole family, the whole extended family. If you just enjoy yourself in life, then that's all that you can do.”
Martyn’s current panto days “started with Chris Jordan (show director) really. I've known Chris since he was six. I was doing amateur shows with his mum and dad in Watford. I grew up knowing him and when he went to work at Potters Bar he was putting on panto there and he said ‘Do you fancy coming along and playing an ugly sister for me?’
“I had retired from panto in 1990. I had decided not to perform anymore. I was a boy dancer in panto in the days of Hinge & Bracket and Bobby Crush. And then I was in my 30s and the other boy dancers were 18 or 19 so I decided to stop.”
Then Chris gave him the chance in 1997 and he hasn't looked back: “Unfortunately theatre is in your blood. Once you start you can't really get away. I think of it as like being on a roundabout. You're just going round and round and round and you can't get off. But I don't want to get off anyway! My body sometimes tells me that I should put my mind just wants to keep going!”
Martyn also loves the fact that he is clearly a regular at the venue – and all the advantages that come with that: “I think it gives you the fun and the laughter and having the audience on your side. But actually it's really good this year that I'm a sort of baddie which is unusual. I work for Captain Hook. But I'm actually on the good side of nasty. I say a line that I don't really do nasty as a rule. Honestly I don't! We can't even laugh nastily. It is a comedy nasty role!”
And it is great to renew his on- and off-stage Eastbourne panto partnership with Tucker who will play Smee to Martyn’s Mrs Smee: “He is not only my son on stage, he is the son I never had in life, and I couldn’t wish for a nicer son and friend.”