To celebrate our Church Anniversary at the beginning of March, the Church occasionally puts on a pantomime. We did this most recently in 2007 after a four-year gap, when “Aladdin” was performed to packed houses on Friday and Saturday nights.

Apart from all the normal pantomime traditions (“Behind you!” “Oh, yes he is!”, etc.) our pantomimes, written by a church member, have a number of traditions of their own. The minister always appears as a prologue in some suitable guise, and the story is always set in our own neighbourhood – or a somewhat romanticised version of it! For this reason, they are always popular with local residents and we see the pantomime as a way of celebrating the community of which we are part, and a way of having fun together.

It also brings out the talents of our members, especially some of the young people, who really shone in this year’s production.

Even our Asylum seeker was not forgotten. He played a Frenchman, Jacques, who experienced some problems with the English language. In actual fact, Lauréat’s English has improved so much that we had to teach him to say the words wrong! We are looking forward to another production, perhaps in 2010?