Dame Fraser set for season

Is it almost that time of year again? Oh yes it is!

Christmas will be here before we know it, so with panto season only weeks away Dame Sarah the Cook, AKA Fraser Boyle can’t wait to get back into action with his role in Dick Whittington at the Grand Hall.

Fraser is no stranger to the Palace Theatre stage, having received rave reviews as the dame in last year’s panto Beauty and the Beast, which he described as “a fantastic experience”.

He said: “Everyone was so professional and good humoured.

“We had some laughs backstage... plus the audiences at Kilmarnock are a riot - you never know what you’re going to get.

“That makes pantomime for me, the fabulous audience. The Kilmarnock lot are my kind of people.

“I’m so pleased and excited to be back and I’m looking forward to Christmas already.”

It’s a great experience for local lad Fraser, who comes from Ayr, to be playing so close to home.

He said: “I come from quite a large extended family.

“Ever since I can remember, when the family all got together for a party, we’d each do a turn for each other. You would sing, play piano, dance or tell a joke when it was your turn.

“Those are some of my earliest memories performing.

“But the first time I was on an actual stage I was five years old and my line was “It be under your hat Jim Lad”. I was a pirate.”

And Fraser claims being the star isn’t all he would like to do.

He said: “I think I’d love to play the baddie, it seems like a fun experience. All those boos! I’d also like to play the silly Billy but I think I’d be rubbish at it.

“Playing the dame you get to magnify all your worst qualities, like vanity and pettiness and generally behave like an obtuse buffoon!

“Equally you get to magnify some good qualities too like warmth and charm. That’s pretty much where the similarities end... a 6ft 2 woman I am not.”

Don’t miss the panto from Saturday, November 25 to Saturday, December 30.

To book tickets, call the box office on 01563 554900 or visit eastayrshireleisure. com.