Panto debut for a Peter Pan who's never even seen a panto!
Not only is Peter Pan in Eastbourne Angus Benstead’s first-ever pantomime. The fact is he's never actually even seen a pantomime.
“I grew up overseas so this is my crash into the pantomime world. I grew up in Dubai and I was there for 18 years. I came to the UK for university. But what I did know about pantomime was that it is a lot of fun. It's for the whole family to enjoy an amazing time at Christmas and you get to work with amazingly talented cast and crew and just everyone having the best time on stage.
“It is super exciting. There are lots of things that I'm learning about it. When I first read the script I was thinking ‘what is this?’ and ‘what is that?’ but people just explain that is part of panto and I'm loving it so much.”
It helps that the story is Peter Pan, a story that Angus grew up on: “I used to watch the film all the time when I was younger and I've always been a big fan of the show. There are lots of cool themes. It's a great story but I think it's also something that everyone can relate to. You can sit back and enjoy the fun of it all or you can enjoy the theme of not wanting to grow up. When I was younger, I never wanted to grow up. I think I am a natural Peter!
“Peter is a really interesting character. When you first explore him, you can see that he is very protective and wants to take control and protect the lost kids and he really takes seriously his responsibility to his people and to his friends but then when you start to really get into the character further you can see that he is actually quite unpredictable. He has lots of quirks and how he responds to situations and I think that's down to the fact that he just doesn't want to grow up. It's really interesting to see how Peter’s relationship develops with Wendy as well. I think there has to be a balance between them. Sometimes you think that it's Peter who is in charge but sometimes it is not necessarily Peter being the hero. It's about the both of them and they find their moments to share in the journey that they are going on.”
Angus graduated from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in January 2024: “And since then it has been great. I've been really fortunate in my professional jobs that I have managed to do lots of really interesting things that have been a lot of fun.”
Theatre credits include: Grover in The Lightning Thief (The Other Palace); and Blippi in Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour (Harold Pinter Theatre and international Tour).