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The 83-year-old will play the titular
character, who together with husband Vic, portrayed by comedian
John Bishop, runs an animal sanctuary inside an abandoned
department store that once belonged to retailer Debenhams.
Actress and presenter Mel Giedroyc plays a goose with a special
gift, whose arrival changes their lives.
Like other pantomimes - classic Christmas productions in Britain
- "Mother Goose" promises plenty of laughs for audiences of all
ages. It will also tour the country and run until Easter.
“When I was a kid growing up, there were pantomimes that
opened...the day after Christmas and ended on Easter
Saturday...and that’s what we’re going to be doing," McKellen
told Reuters in a joint interview with Bishop on Monday.
"It’s a risk, we’ll see whether that still works but again when
I was a kid, there were touring pantomimes which there aren’t
really much these days, if any. So we’re going to back to what
has made pantomime successful in the past. It’s finding the
audience when they need us most and I think the winter months
are probably it.”
While pantomimes are not new to McKellen, the "Lord of the
Rings" and "X-Men" films actor is best known for performing
William Shakespeare plays on stage.
"Whether it’s soldiers marching in the streets at a funeral,
whether it’s a crowd at a football match all singing together,
or whether it’s a family going to a pantomime and sitting next
to another family...We care about the same things and that’s
what pantomime underlines," he said, referring to live
entertainment connecting Britons.
"And to be allowed (together with Bishop) to be sort of master
and mistress of ceremonies of this mayhem and fun, it’s better
than playing King Lear...It’s not better, it’s different."
"Mother Goose" kicks off in Brighton on December 3 before moving
to London, where it will show until end-January. It will then go
on tour around Britain as well perform in Dublin.
"Everybody knows that there’s a cost of living crisis, there’s a
lot of negative news about," Bishop said. "People need some
escapism, they need some joy. But also they need it as a
family."
(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, editing by Deepa
Babington)
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