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How a Game of Thrones star is hoping to make his mark on this year’s Everyman rock ‘n’ roll panto
1 year ago
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After surviving four years in the epic Game of Thrones, Luke Barnes knows whatever he does next heâll probably forever be linked to the fantasy phenomenon.
But heâs hoping to make his mark in a very different genre this Christmas far closer to home.
As the writer of this yearâs Everyman rock ânâ roll panto, Cinderella, Formby-born Luke is planning to bring his own modern interpretation to a fairy tale classic.
âOne of the things about panto is, the stories are really flawed and horrific if you look closely at them,â he explains. âSo Cinderella is about a woman with both her parents dead, living in an abusive relationship with her stepfamily while grieving, and the solution is to marry a rich guy!
âThe big challenge is how we can make it work for a contemporary audience.
âHow do you solve the moral problem of the story within a format that works? Thatâs exciting, I think.
Watch as we meet the cast of this year’s Everyman rock ‘n’ roll panto:
âFirst and foremost, panto is a fun thing for the family but we do still have to be careful about the lessons that weâre teaching children. I would feel really uncomfortable if we were to do a version where she just marries a rich guy and goes off into the sunset and thatâs the end of it.
âSo what I wanted to do was a modern tweaking of the traditional to take a fresh look at it. There are things we expect, like the shoe trying on and the big pumpkin becoming a carriage, they are the story, so then you have to work out how to make changes without it becoming unrecognisable.
âWeâre taking it in a different direction, so people who come year after year still recognise what they love, but maybe theyâre a bit surprised too.Â
Hope Street feels like a world away from the kingdom of Westeros, where as Rast he met a typically bloody end, mauled to death.
But actually, Luke has realised the writing side of stage and screen suits him better than acting.
âGame of Thrones was my first ever job and I realise that whatever I do in my life, I will always be the guy who was in Game of Thrones,â he laughs.
âI did four years on it and I killed one person, that was my claim to fame, but I didnât really like acting to be honest. The lifestyle is so uncertain and youâve got no control over it. I wanted to make things that I felt had some purpose and impact.
âI started writing in about 2010 and I was Writer on Attachment in 2012 at the Everyman so my working relationship with them goes back to then.
âAfter that I lived away, in London for a while, but I moved back about five years ago and coming back rekindled it. When they were commissioning for this panto they asked me to do it.â
In fact, 35-year-old Lukeâs love of the Everymanâs panto dates back far further, to the years he spent sitting in the audience on family and friends Christmas theatre trips.
âThere was a group of about 30 of us whoâd come every year so Iâve been watching the panto since I was about 11, this is a really nice full circle momentâ he says.
âThatâs one of the reasons why I think itâs important to respect how much audiences love it. I donât want people to come and think, oh theyâve just scrapped everything we like. Itâs not about me saying âitâs my turn now.â
âIâve enjoyed the challenge of writing this panto, my take on art is we should be having the biggest conversations in the most accessible ways and this is a great opportunity for that.
âBut there are certain things that are at the heart of the Everymanâs rock ânâ roll panto, that make it different, and I wanted to keep them – live music, water pistols and Adam Keast, thatâs what I think of when I think of the show.â