Aladdin’s cave of panto props up for auction
After gathering dust in a storeroom, props and costumes from theatre’s good old days go under hammer
PACKED INTO crates and strewn across the floor, it is a complete theatrical production. All that’s missing is a script and the actors.
A “do it yourself ” pantomime kit, rescued from the props stores and warehouses of the Victorian-era City Varieties Theatre in Leeds, goes under the auctioneer’s hammer today.
From costumes and scenery to lights and winches, it contains almost everything necessary to put on a show – and casts a colourful light on the changing nature of showbusiness. Stages on to which once strode giants and pirates are now home to rock musicians.
The back-street theatre, tucked away behind the shops of the city centre, is one of the few surviving music halls of the 19th century. For decades it was the home of TV’s Edwardian music hall conceit, The Good Old
Days, but it has also staged some of Yorkshire’s longest-running pantomimes.
It was a tradition uninterrupted either by war or the strip shows which in the 1960s became its bread and butter. In 1941, it was reported that a woman in the audience had given birth during a performance of Babes in the Wood.
But when in 2009 it closed, temporarily, for a £9.9m renovation, the old backdrops and other pieces of kit were put into storage. When the Varieties reopened two years later, they were out of style.
Today, the demand is for “rock and roll pantomimes”, with casts of multi-talented singers and musicians replacing the reliable old soap stars and comics.
After allowing it to gather dust in a storage unit, the theatre decided to put its hoard up for sale.
“It’s a treasure trove for amateur dramatics groups,” said the auctioneer Gary Don, whose Leeds saleroom will conduct the bidding.
“There is the beanstalk and the giant from Jack and the
Beanstalk, Cinderella’s carriage and the scenery from Aladdin.”
The auction lots also include theatrical hoists, lighting boards and such props as a cannon that fires footballs, a flying carpet and a face-sized giant frying pan.
A dry ice machine and a row of seats from the City Varieties’ old auditorium is even being thrown in to what is literally an Aladdin’s Cave.
“They are not hugely antique,” said Nev Jopson, the theatre’s marketing manager, “but the tradition goes way back. “My wife remembers coming to the City Varieties as a child and seeing live horses pull Cinderella’s carriage on stage.”
Many of the productions were the work of the late Robin Davies, the child actor familiar from TV’s
Catweazle, who enjoyed a 20-year association with the City Varieties as a writer and director. He died seven years ago, at 56. The theatre has played host to Charlie Chaplin and the escapologist Harry Houdini, and is credited with helping to launch the careers of Frankie Vaughan, Ken Dodd, Roy Hudd and Barry Cryer. It is now run by Leeds Council, which says money raised from the auction will go towards its preservation.