A PANTOMIME tradition is in full swing in Cinderford at the moment, as the Wesley Players present Cinderella – their 64th production – and they’re already on the hunt for next year’s baddy.

Four performances have been staged so far by the group, who have been entertaining the town since 1956, with only a couple of years off in all that time. The final two shows take place this Friday (January 26) and Saturday (January 27) at the town’s Miners’ Hall.

Director and producer Lynn Teague has been part of the Wesley Players for 45 years and said: “We have about 45 members at the moment, ranging in age from three to 70. We’re always a bit short of men though and we’re already looking for someone to play a baddy in the pantomime next year.”

This year, three generations of Lynn’s family were involved and she herself played one of the ugly sisters in the cast of 32.

She added: “My daughter and two grandchildren are in this performance and we have four generations of the Ball family involved too. It’s a very family orientated group. This year we welcomed Iris and Poppy Simmonds to our panto family. Their great-grandad Dave Mason often played the Dame and their grandma, Janet Butt, played principal girl for many years.

“We have about 10 or 12 traditional pantomimes that we perform in rotation and the original scripts were written by Elsie Olivey, who was the driving force behind the group for 50 years. I update and modernise them a bit each time, so this year we had references to the boar and Cinderella arrived in a Tardis. We also had a very interesting grown-up sized lizard who was transformed into a coachman.

“This year’s production is a real mixture of laughter, enchantment and pretty fairies and the children have all been amazing - they sing beautifully.

“It’s been brilliant and we’ve had good audiences every night. On Saturday we had a job to fit everybody in and we’d recommend people book in advance to guarantee a seat at one of the shows this weekend.”

Sita Claridge plays Cinderella, while her step-sisters are played by Lynn Teague and Carolyn Hinton. Baron Harduppe is played by Michael Jackson, Lorraine Simmons was his wife Hyacinth and Trot and Squat are played by Lucy Batt and Morgan Probert. Fairy Kindheart is Kim Owston, and Prince Charming is played by Louise Bullen.

Spencer Hill is Buttons and Bowes is Jess Batts, with a maid and footman being played by Lauren Hall and Morgan Harvard. Elin Havard is Dandini and Lily Ball is Darcy.

Doors open at 6.30pm for the performance at 7.15pm. Contact Lynn on 07939 399125 for details of how to buy tickets and for information about joining the group.