DARLINGTON'S Majestic Theatre performed it’s pantomime, Dick Whittington, in December.
With a small team of cast and crew, the Majestic’s in-house theatre company was all set after a short rehearsal process.
The first show was on December 17 and the cast was beaming after entertaining Darlington, until Covid reared its ugly head.
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Business director and cast member at The Majestic Theatre, Hayley Warters said: "We kept our team very small to limit exposure to Covid.
"As we are a very small theatre we didn't have the budget for understudies for everyone.
"We were taking lateral flow tests weekly and telling everyone to use their common sense. With the nature of panto we couldn’t do much social distancing though."
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The first two Covid cases in the cast were detected on the same day, December 28.
Sarah Oakland who was playing The Cat in Dick Whittington tested positive and Hayley’s husband, a stagehand, went on to play The Cat.
Sarah said: "I was devastated to test positive because I really didn’t want to let people down."
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After that, lateral flow tests were taken daily.
Victoria West was choreographer, dancer and an understudy and leapt into the role of principle girl when Eleaner Alderson lost her voice (not related to Covid). The girls switched roles which worked well until Victoria tested positive for Covid on the second last day of the run.
Hayley then tested positive on the day of the final show, December 31.
Megan Robson was playing Fairy Bowbells and she tested positive on the same day.
Hayley decided she had no option but to pull the plug on the final show.
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"It was a bit of a logistical nightmare to be honest.
"When we heard about other shows being cancelled because of Covid in the cast, we were kind of expecting it but to be honest it was just a relief that it didn’t happen until the very end of the run," said Hayley.
Megan said: "The process of putting on a pantomime during Covid wasn't without its challenges.
"Eventually we had to cancel the final performance due to the majority of the cast having the virus, which is so heart-breaking as we only had one show to complete the run, but we were so lucky to have had so many people and families support The Majestic Theatre this Christmas."
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