How a Game of Thrones star is hoping to make his mark on this year's Everyman rock 'n' roll panto

After surviving four years in the epic Game of Thrones, Luke Barnes knows whatever he does next he’ll probably forever be linked to the fantasy phenomenon.

But he’s hoping to make his mark in a very different genre this Christmas far closer to home.

As the writer of this year’s Everyman rock ‘n’ roll panto, Cinderella, Formby-born Luke is planning to bring his own modern interpretation to a fairy tale classic.

“One of the things about panto is, the stories are really flawed and horrific if you look closely at them,” he explains. “So 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!

“The big challenge is how we can make it work for a contemporary audience.

“How do you solve the moral problem of the story within a format that works? That’s exciting, I think.

Watch as we meet the cast of this year’s Everyman rock ‘n’ roll panto:

“First and foremost, panto is a fun thing for the family but we do still have to be careful about the lessons that we’re 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 that’s the end of it.

“So 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.

“We’re taking it in a different direction, so people who come year after year still recognise what they love, but maybe they’re a bit surprised too.

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.

“Game 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,” he laughs.

“I did four years on it and I killed one person, that was my claim to fame, but I didn’t really like acting to be honest. The lifestyle is so uncertain and you’ve got no control over it. I wanted to make things that I felt had some purpose and impact.

“I 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.

“After 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.”

In fact, 35-year-old Luke’s love of the Everyman’s panto dates back far further, to the years he spent sitting in the audience on family and friends Christmas theatre trips.

“There was a group of about 30 of us who’d come every year so I’ve been watching the panto since I was about 11, this is a really nice full circle moment” he says.

“That’s one of the reasons why I think it’s important to respect how much audiences love it. I don’t want people to come and think, oh they’ve just scrapped everything we like. It’s not about me saying ‘it’s my turn now.’

“I’ve 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.

“But there are certain things that are at the heart of the Everyman’s rock ‘n’ roll panto, that make it different, and I wanted to keep them – live music, water pistols and Adam Keast, that’s what I think of when I think of the show.”