‘The show to go on is what Frank would have wanted’
One of the most-loved pantomime dames passed away earlier this year but director Richard Tunley tells David Owens how he’s paying tribute to Frank Vickery
WHEN Frank Vickery died suddenly in June of this year, the man dubbed the “Voice of the Valleys” left behind a huge legacy.
While he wrote more than 30 plays and was rightly acclaimed as a playwright of rare talent, Vickery also excelled at a very special role – that of pantomime dame.
For the best part of a decade Vickery would spend his Decembers dressed like an explosion in a haute couture factory – a technicolour clash of Lady Gaga and Grotbags – his preternatural comic timing as finely honed as his ability to put words to a script.
The Dame may be a stock pantomime character, but few played it with such a joyous, over-thetop vivaciousness as the Rhondda native.
Frank Vickery was 66 when he died and nowhere was his death felt more painfully than amongst the cast of the RCT Theatres’ pantomime for whom the playwright was a central figure.
Since the formation of the company, which stages the annual panto in Aberdare and Treorchy, the consummate dame had been the driving force of the shows.
His unexpected death was a huge blow for everybody involved in the company.
What happened next? Should the show go on? How do you replace somebody as inextricably linked with the RCT panto as Frank? These were all huge questions director and writer Richard Tunley, together with the cast and crew, had to answer.
Thankfully, it was quickly decided that what Frank would have wanted most is for the show to go on.
However, the emotional undertow of his huge loss would affect everything.
Tunley confided that the loss of their totemic figure cast a huge shadow over preparations for this year’s pantomime – Jack and the Beanstalk – but there was never any thought that it wouldn’t happen.
He revealed the big debate came over whether to retire the dame in honour of their muchloved colleague.
“The first instinct was to pull the dame from the panto as a mark of respect,” he said. “My instinct was that all those youngsters watching the show would need a traditional dame.
“So we made the decision that the show must go on because that’s what Frank would have wanted.”
However, the writer and director admitted that he was wracked with doubt when he was asked, not long after Vickery passed away, if he wanted to take over.
“My instinct then was a negative one,” he said. “That was because it was very raw and very fresh.
“Frank was an incredible mentor and an incredible friend to me for more than 25 years and it didn’t feel right.”
As the process of putting the production together got under way, Tunley devised a brilliant compromise – a way of cleverly incorporating “a dame” into the show as a tribute to their friend – and with him as a key member of the cast.
“We thought we could put together a bigger homage to him by not having a dame but finding a creative way of having the dame character without feeling like you’d replaced Frank.
“Once that decision was taken, I felt happier that I could do something with this. Now it feels like we’ve come up with a great way of honouring him.”
While not revealing the exact detail of what this creative device is, for fear of spoiling it for those families who are yet to see the RCT panto, it’s clear that this has been quite the emotional process for both cast and crew.
“When we started to move into the planning of the panto what quickly became apparent was how much his leaving us