Covid is not a showstopper for Hyde Park Unity Day panto

The Hyde Park Unity Day Pantomime 'The Hyper Hyde Park Space Race' will be performed online via Zoom this weekend.

Actors and audience will all be taking part from their own homes over three days from Friday December 18.

Most of the pantomime cast are local children and teenagers, who have been working with Unity Day Pantomime volunteers to develop the plot, write the script and plan the costumes and props.

Rachel Muers and her sons Matthew Burnell, 15 and Peter Burnell, 12, will be taking part.

This year, directors and actors have had to face new challenges.

They have worked out how to include traditional panto elements like audience participation, ‘it’s behind you’ jokes, big musical numbers and custard pies in an online show.

Ruth Lodge, panto producer and co-director, said: "We knew it would be hard, but we had to find a way to do the panto.

"Everyone’s had such a tough year and the panto is a way to bring people together, have a good laugh and remember what an amazing community we live in."

The Hyde Park Unity Day pantomime is set in outer space, where the 'Wacky Races' are going intergalactic.

Alongside the dame, the goodies and the baddies, audiences will meet the Blues Brothers, Isaac Newton, a sarcastic computer, snooker-playing giants, and characters from space movies past and present.

Ruth said: "Of course we’d rather be performing face to face, but on the plus side, by taking the show online we can bring it to lots of people who wouldn’t normally be able to see it.

"You can join us from anywhere, we’ve even got plans to translate the show into Spanish for some of our international audience.

" And we’re really glad to be able to bring the pantomime to the homes of people, in LS6 or further afield, who are feeling isolated or who are missing their normal connections with their local community.

"The pantomime is all about celebrating unity in good times and bad, and we really need that in 2020."

Hyper Hyde Park Space Race, the 2020 Hyde Park Unity Day pantomime, will be streamed live on Friday December 18, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20.

Details for joining the show - and introductions to the characters – can all be found at www.hydeparkunitypanto.wordpress.com/