Players mime classic tale for all its worth

There is a boy played by a woman and a dame played by a man, an umbrella-wielding witch and New Year party fever: the Hong Kong Players can always be relied on for festive pantomime.

This year it is Pinocchio, best known from the Disney cartoon in which the puppet has a problem with his nose because he lies too much, then runs away, gets into trouble, proves how brave he really is and gets rewarded by coming to life.

The panto actually coincides with Disney's remaking of the classic Italian fairytale. Pinocchio, which opens at the Shouson Theatre on December 9, was chosen because of the renewed attention the character is receiving as a result of the new film.

'We were aware that most children, particularly in Hong Kong, would know the Disney story rather than the Italian original,' said director and co-writer Sally Dellow. The latter, for one, does not feature a man-eating whale.

It is from this that she and co-writer Steven Lewis have adapted the script, joke-laden about anything from the fate of Penny's Bay to Viagra, and added new panto characters. Lewis also stage-manages the show. Pinocchio, like all pantomime, is designed to appeal to all ages, with innuendos for adults, noisy spectacle and buffoonery for children.

'Panto is a very low-brow form of entertainment: shouting at the bad guys, booing at the witch and cheering the fairy. I love the cheesiness of it,' Dellow said. 'It is the only form of theatre where you are specifically allowed to break all the rules.' This is Dellow's first panto, rehearsed almost every day with her cast of 40. Rarely do preparations for this kind of production go smoothly and this one has been particularly unlucky. Chris Baldwin, the teacher who plays Kick-Off, the character who tries to steal Pinocchio to sell, is recovering from a car accident. 'The voice is there. The body will be next week,' Dellow said during a rehearsal.