Pantomime scene-stealers Dames, baddies and ugly sisters

It's all down to discipline. So says Ireland's most popular panto dame, Joe Conlan, who is busy rehearsing for his role as Dame Buffy in Snow White at the Liberty Hall Theatre.

"My script is huge this year and I'm on and off the stage the whole night. So I've a lot of working out to do to prepare for that," he explains. Setting himself up as this year's queen of pantomime dames, Conlon says "the public are in for a shock this year because Buffy is a clothes designer, and by the end of the night she will reveal all."

Meanwhile, across the river in the Gaiety Theatre, the baddie who stole the show in Mother Goose last year, Michael Grennell, is taking on a more mild-mannered role in this year's pantomime, Beauty and the Beast. "This will be my sixth pantomime at the Gaiety. It's great fun and while I fit comfortably in the role as a baddie, I'm part of a comedy double act with Richie Hayes this year," he says. Although sworn to secrecy on the special effects in this traditional pantomime, Grennell whispers something about how a certain malicious woman will get her comeuppance in the end.

Jim Mulcahy plays Confucia Clontarf aka Jack's mother in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork city this year. "I'll be chased, dragged, pushed and pulled about during the whole show," he says, already anticipating the energy levels he will require for the role. "What I notice is that more adults are coming to the pantomimes nowadays and thank God for the Government because they keep us going week in week out with one-liners for this year's show."

Four stories are rolled into one for Nevereverland at the Limerick Institute of Technology Millennium Theatre this year. "Basically, it's the story of a group of actors who put on the best bits of four shows (Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Robin Hood and Peter Pan) to impress a property developer so that he won't sell the theatre," explains Myles Breen, who plays both Jack's mother and one of the ugly sisters. "It's great fun. We have a go at all the local personalities. There's lots of audience interaction and if we see someone we know in the audience, we'll have a go at them too. Last year, we even brought [ comedian] Pat Shortt up on stage."

Last but by no means least, June Rodgers is back again this year, starring in Jack and the Beanstalk at Dublin's Olympia Theatre. "I was six years in the Gaiety, six years with my own show in the Red Cow, and now I'm back for the second year in the Olympia," she explains. "Basically, I realised there was a new audience out there for me." Rodgers enthuses about working with the 110 children who will be performing alongside her. "Other children just love to see children on stage and it's great to see how children still laugh at the simple things like getting a cream cake in the face. It's that bold, cheeky child sort of humour that I bring to the show and what I enjoy most." ...