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Oh no she isn’t!  Oh yes she is! Jennie Jones, director and producer of the Stoke Gabriel pantomime, is retiring after 37 years in the panto business. Her last show, Christmas All at Sea, had all the essential ingredients of a good panto with lots of audience participation, songs and a baddie to boo and hiss at. 

Pantomime has been part of Jennie and her husband Ian’s life since 1967 when they moved to Doha in Qatar in the Arabian Gulf.

Shell Oil used to put on pantomimes for their employees but when the producer was suddenly deported, Jennie and Ian stepped in.

 “I’ve always felt that pantos were part of the English tradition and the children in Doha were going to miss out,” she said. 

With the help of 50 volunteers their first pantomime was a huge hit.  Local people enjoyed it too. “Pantomime appeals to all nationalities. It’s mime, it’s visual, it’s colour…and children love to see someone fall over!” said Jennie.

After 10 years of successful pantomimes they decided to build a theatre.  With donations from local companies and a plot of land given by the local ruler, in 1979 the Doha Players theatre was opened. 

For the next seven years Jennie, as producer and director, and Ian, as stage manager, worked to put on a pantomime every year until returning to the UK in 1986.

The theatre was also used for other shows. Billy Connolly performed his one-man show there and the theatre is mentioned in his book Gullibles Travels.

In 2005, tragedy struck. The theatre was blown up by an Egyptian suicide bomber.  The bomber had sat through part of the show before driving his explosive loaded car at the building. The bomber and one person were killed and 12 were injured.  Jennie said she was devastated to see it on the television news.

However, the show will go on.  Since then, Jennie is pleased to have heard that the local authorities have plans to rebuild the theatre.

Back in Stoke Gabriel, pantomime was obviously in Jennie’s genes as her mother had started a village pantomime in 1981. 

When she died, Jennie took over the director’s chair and has produced and directed the pantomime nearly every year since then.

 “It started with one performance and that was it.  It grew and grew,” she said.

With up to nine months of preparation and up to 70 people involved, putting on a pantomime requires a lot of work and commitment and brings local people together.  “It’s good for the village. I love it because I’m mixing with generations in the village I don’t normally meet, including children from Stoke Gabriel primary school,” said Jennie. 

For the first time a live band led the music this year, so Jennie leaves her last pantomime on a new, musical note.

Both Jennie and Ian are retiring so there will be more time to pursue other interests and as Jennie said, “My family will never speak to me again if I do another one!”

By Julie Goodall ( of Stoke Gabriel)

Photographs of the pantomime are courtesy of Gilbert Browning Studios.

3rd February 2006

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