VIDEO - No role for Berwick in new look panto

Tom Bird, Executive Director of York Theatre Royal says the decline in audience numbers for the panto means things need to change.

Sales of tickets have slumped from 54 thousand in 2008 to around 30 thousand this year.

Veteran Panto Dame Berwick Kaler will not be part of future shows.

(He was a writer and director this year having retired as Dame last year)

Tom Bird says he knows that the panto is important to people BUT they can't let the decline continue.

Other cities, smaller than York, can boast panto audiences of 90 thousand.

Tom Bird called Sleeping Beauty a brilliant Pantomime and it was worth a go.

Set and Costume budgets were the same as last year he said in reference to a criticism from Berwick Kaler.

Tom Bird has confirmed that a new kind of panto will be produced next year with a new writer and director.

He will not automatically offer roles to the current regulars.

More details on the 3rd Feb.

LISTEN/VIDEO  - Tom Bird:

Full Interview here

Brave Move:

Fans are not pleased with what they have heard today taking to twitter

@SimonPBatch
Good luck with that Tom. People can just go to the GOH if they want a.n.other panto. Definitely won't step foot in the YTR again.

@cathrynauplish

Can’t believe @YorkTheatre
 is axing the panto as we know it. No cast = no audience.

Nearly one and a half thousand people have now signed the petition to save the current cast.

Meanwhile, The respected Press theatre critic says the actors who went to the papers claiming they were being sacked from the York Theatre Royal panto have scored an own goal.

Charles Hutchinson has been speaking to Minster FM:

Previously we reported.

An online petition has been started to save the Theatre Royal panto in York even though it’s claimed no decisions about 2020 have been made public yet.

The Executive Director of the venue, Tom Bird,  did confirm more will be announced next month.

He has also talked of a "brave" new year at what is, he says, the cultural hub of the city. 

There are 1,345 signatures to the petition so far (10:15 Monday 13/01/2020) 

David Helsdon, who is behind the petition, says on the webpage:

"Nothing has been confirmed by the Theatre so far, however this is not surprising due to recent Press articles regarding cheap sets, ticket sales being down and also the significance that last year was Berwick’s final show on stage.
 
I for one am not expecting that this will change their mind of the people at the top, but at the very least I’d like to use this petition as a platform and starting point to show the cast and crew of the best panto in the world how much we appreciate their hard work and dedication over the last 40 years."

Cast members have said publicly that they have been told they won’t be back next year. 

There are also calls for the return of Berwick Kaler as York's Panto Dame too.

It's a role he played for 40 years until last years production ended and he's been involved in writing and directing this years too. 

He told the York Press it had been a mistake to retire.

Executive Director Tom Bird tweeted this earlier 

The first adjective of our mission statement @YorkTheatre is... brave. So in 2020, we're going to be brave. And then we're going to keep being brave. Because we love #York and we reckon it's up for a bit of bravery.

He quoted a set of aims for 2020

To celebrate the theatre as a producing house and to make as much theatre as possible in York.

To use our artistic identity and skills to establish new revenue streams with a view to resilience.

To enhance internal and external perceptions of the organisation.

To forge new partnerships.

To grow our audience, celebrating the true diversity of contemporary York and beyond.

To inspire internationally as an example of a cultural organisation that entwines with the needs of its community.

There was a mixed reply to his tweet, some support for the ideas and aims but most people very worried about the panto and what it would be like in the future, if indeed it had a future. 

But, to repeat, the theatre has made no announcement about the future yet so it remains to be seen what happens next.

See the petition here

Read what York's respected theatre critic, Charles Hutchinson of the Press, thinks here

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