Panto returning to Dunmow with Snow White after two years

The pantomime will be performed on December 29, 30 and 31 at the Foakes Hall, and tickets are selling fast.

Dunmow Pantomime Group has been unable to put on a performance for two years due to the Covid pandemic, and rehearsals are well underway, with actors getting fully into character and learning their lines.

Matthew Blanks, chairman of Dunmow Pantomime Group, said: "We have sold half of our shows already which is great, considering we are seven weeks away.

"We have sold more tickets than we would have normally done at this time and we think this is down to people missing their annual pantomime fix and shows they are keen to come back!"

The pantomime group aims to produce a show for the community that "will give a good old-fashioned belly laugh, no matter how young or old you may be".

A statement on their website added: "To see and hear everybody shout 'BOO, HISS' and 'IT'S BEHIND YOU' and leave with a big grin and feeling happy makes all the hard work that goes into the shows all worth while."

The cast and crew of the pantomime usually have a month's respite in January after finishing their last show, before starting preparations for the next one in February.

They start with the script, then choose music, dance choreography, prop design and set scenery for each act.

The Dunmow Pantomime Group has been entertaining the people of Great Dunmow and surrounding towns and villages since the end of the Second World War.

In 1934, Lillian Judges and her family moved to the area from South End, and founded the Marcelle School of Dance - which was based in Bishop's Stortford.

Lillian and her sisters had been professional dancers, and she was instrumental in starting the panto group and continued to appear in pantomimes until her retirement.

The cast and crew is comprised of people of all ages, with the youngest just six years old.

Tickets are available online at www.dunmowpanto.co.uk or by calling Terry on 07769 684839.