Throughout December we’re having theatre companies come into our care homes to perform some of our favourite pantos – Cinderella and Aladdin.
It’s particularly special this year as Panto Day is celebrating 10 years of pantomimes with the theme the ‘Year of Love’ and we all need a little bit of love after such a difficult 18 months.
On Friday 17th December, theatres across the UK will be coming together to toast the wonderful world of pantomimes on social media. We wanted to show our appreciation by talking loudly and proudly about our local theatre companies who come in every year (pre Covid) and blow us away with their fantastic performances.
As you know, we were unable to invite external companies into our homes due to the national lockdown, so we actually went ahead and wrote our own mini pantos. We definitely surprised our residents with our theatrical skills – we still talk about it as a team now and although Christmas was different last year, we tried our very best to make it as special as possible.
Lin Amos, general manager at Red Court Care Community said:
“We have missed having pantomimes at Red Court and we’re so pleased we could ask our local theatre company to come back to our home. This is another fantastic way to interact with our residents (by working with external professionals) and it also encourages them to get involved with the performance whether that’s by singing, clapping or heckling the cast.
This year we were spoilt by a brilliant performance of Cinderella, and everyone here knows the famous love story especially the part where the clock strikes midnight, and the carriage turns into a pumpkin. Unfortunately, I was on annual leave during the show, but the feedback has been fantastic, the residents and the team thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. I’d like to say a huge thank you to Carousel Theatre Company for making the day extremely special. We love a good panto – oh yes we do!”
Red Roofs Residential Care Home had their spirits lifted with a fantastic performance of Disney’s Aladdin. The late Robin Williams was the ultimate movie star when he played Genie – it’s an unforgettable performance but we cannot overlook those that are following in his footsteps years later. This fun, engaging and well executed pantomime by Eva Long Productions gave us the perfect end-of-year social that we were looking for. The residents at Red Roofs were joining in throughout the entire performance and it was great to see everyone in their element.
It has been a pleasure to have live performances back at Red Homes Healthcare and we have been taking all of the necessary precautions to ensure staff, residents and the actors are safe – LFT tests are required upon entry to each home.
