PANTO ROLE BRINGS PEAK FITNESS FOR MACLEAN

MOST of us are worrying about the festive pounds but not Maclean Burke. For the Fair City star expects his waistline to become smaller thanks to his role of Polly in the 3Olympia Theatre panto.

‘It’s full on,’ he says. ‘I expect to lose a stone and a half over the three week period. You are wearing a corset and a dress, you are under the lights fill tilt and giving it 110 per cent that is what is required,’ he says.

‘When I am onstage I am this big ball of energy and when I get home I am falling apart.’

Olly, Polly and the Beanstalk stars Maclean’s Fair City buddy Ryan Andrews and James Patrice and the high octane performances mean a lot more movement.

‘ As you get older when you are doing panto you have to violently move the bits that don’t want to move and hopefully get to the other side of it,’ Maclean says. ‘And if you don’t have nerves then you aren’t in the right game. Panto is the only show you will do where there is so much interaction and audience participation. When you step out on that stage and you start getting feedback from the audience straight away, you know that you have them.’

Energetic though a panto is, there are benefits as when mistakes are made, they become part of the show.

‘Nothing can really go wrong the whole point is everyone is there to watch it go wrong,’ says Maclean.

Over in Carrigstown it is a different story for Maclean who plays Damien in the hit soap.

‘Damien has issues with work so in the New Year he is coming off the back of all of the stuff that went on with Lafferty and on the site and there are issues coming for him in 2023. A bit like everyone else in the country, his worries are financial.’

But for now he is leaving his cares behind in the panto which will run until January 8 at 3Olympia Theatre.

‘As long as you own your panto character it works really well and you have a lot of fun doing it.’

For tickets see olympia panto.ie Dame: Maclean as Polly