Figueres a Escena

Christmas pantomime: a story of tradition and community

Each winter, as the Tramuntana wind settles over the cobbled streets of Figueres, Teatre El Jardí begins its transformation. Fairy lights drape the proscenium arch, costumes emerge from storage, and the rehearsal rooms hum with laughter. For three decades, our annual Christmas pantomime has anchored the festive calendar of Alt Empordà.

Figueres a Escena runs the show alongside its wider programme across Teatre El Jardí, Sala La Cate, and ATEB theatre school, where many of our younger performers take their first steps on a professional stage. The pantomime sits at the heart of that ecosystem, a bridge between training and performance, between generations of locals and visitors who return each December.

Pantomime is a wonderfully adaptable form. It mutates to fit the customs of whatever community hosts it. In Sydney, families head to the Capitol Theatre. In Melbourne, the Princess Theatre has hosted festive fare for over a century. Here in Figueres, we borrow the genre's playful irreverence and weave in Catalan folklore and Empordà humour.

This is the story of how a single festive production comes together each year, from first page to final curtain call.

How a pantomime reaches Figueres

The British pantomime has Roman roots and a Victorian flourish, but its modern shape was forged in the theatres of London during the nineteenth century. Travelling troupes carried it across the British Empire, where it took root in places as far apart as Adelaide and Auckland. Figueres a Escena's founders encountered the form during cultural exchanges in the late 1980s and saw a kinship with Catalan comic traditions.

That cross-pollination shaped our first Christmas production in 1994, staged in a modest hall. Word spread quickly. Within five years, the show had moved to Teatre El Jardí, where capacity and backstage space matched the ambition of the team. Each season has built on the lessons of the last.

Today, the pantomime is less an imported tradition than a home-grown hybrid. Writers draw on Catalan fairy tales alongside classic panto staples. A simple "he's behind you" can draw a roar from a packed house, whether the audience grew up in Figueres or Brisbane.

The stage at Teatre El Jardí

A great deal of what makes our pantomime unique comes from the building itself. Teatre El Jardí was not originally a theatre, and its layered past continues to inform how we stage festive work. Curious visitors can explore the venue's journey through our history as a cinema.

The proscenium frames action in the traditional manner, yet the fly tower, dressing rooms, and orchestra pit allow our directors to dream bigger each season. A pantomime demands spectacle: flying carpets, custard-pie routines, and explosions of glitter. Our technical team has refined these effects so they feel polished and slightly mischievous.

The hall accommodates nearly seven hundred, which matters in December. Families from the Costa Brava, weekend visitors from Perpignan, and touring groups share the room with expatriate communities who have made the Empordà their home. The shared laughter, in Catalan, Spanish, French, and English, has become part of the show.

Rehearsals, writers, and the creative room

Production begins each spring with a writers' room at Sala La Cate. The brief is simple: choose a familiar story, give it a Catalan twist, plant songs that lodge in the memory, and write a dame the audience will adore. From that conversation, a working title emerges and a calendar is set.

By summer, the script is workshopped with ATEB members. Children as young as eight read drafts, suggest jokes, and try dance numbers. Their feedback often reshapes a scene more decisively than adult critique. The directors have learned to listen closely.

Our staging draws on practices used across the performing arts world, including those explored in this piece on site-specific performance in Figueres. Although the pantomime is proscenium-based, the discipline of designing for a specific space shapes every choice. Rehearsals intensify in November.

The cast, from pupils to principal performers

Casting is one of the most anticipated rituals. Open auditions are held at Sala La Cate every October, drawing everyone from seasoned professionals to first-time hopefuls. The artistic team reads approximately one hundred and twenty performers over three days, looking for voices, comic timing, and stamina.

ATEB graduates frequently join the ensemble, and a handful are given featured roles each season. Watching a fifteen-year-old who began in our children's classes command the stage as the principal boy is one of the genuine joys of the production. It signals something larger about the health of local theatre.

The principal cast is drawn from across Catalonia. The dame, traditionally male in British panto, is often cast with a female comedian in our productions, an adaptation that has proved enormously popular. A live band from the conservatoire in Girona supplies the music, with community volunteers filling the bigger numbers.

Costumes, sets, and Mediterranean glitter

The wardrobe department begins work in early autumn, sketching designs that need to be spectacular and quick to change. Pantomime costume changes are a craft, and the team has developed tricks, from velcro seams to magnetic closures, that allow actors to transform in as little as eight seconds. The aesthetic leans towards bold colour and generous sequins.

Sets are built in the workshop behind Sala La Cate and transported to Teatre El Jardí. The design borrows from Catalan modernism, with arched windows and a palette drawn from the ochres and sea blues of the surrounding landscape. When a scene demands a forest or a palace ballroom, the team builds it modularly.

Glitter, it should be said, gets everywhere. By closing night, traces appear in the green room, the box office, and occasionally the street outside. We accept this as a small price of admission.

Audiences, traditions, and a long run

Pantomime audiences behave differently from any other show we stage. Children shout warnings to the hero. Adults boo the villain with relish. Grandparents settle in with cava. The democratic energy is part of what makes the form so durable, and so different from, say, the hushed expectation of midnight Mass at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney or a recital at the Adelaide Festival Centre.

The run lasts from mid-December until just after Epiphany, with matinees for school groups. Some families treat the pantomime as the start of their festive season, while others make it a January ritual to chase away the post-holiday lull. A handful of loyal patrons have attended every production since 1994.

Beyond entertainment, the pantomime carries real cultural weight. It is one of the few events where multiple generations share a theatrical experience, where newcomers are welcomed, and where local children see themselves on a professional stage. For a small organisation in a city of forty-five thousand, that is no small achievement.

Element Our pantomime British panto tradition Australian summer pantomime
Setting Winter, indoor theatre Winter, indoor theatre Summer, indoor or open-air
Dame Often female comedian Traditionally male in drag Frequently female comedian
Audience style Shouted warnings, boos, singalongs Scripted cues, call-and-response Roasting the lead, beach jokes
Local flavour Catalan folklore, Empordà references British pop culture, London references Barbecue, cricket, Santa in board shorts
Run length About four weeks Six to ten weeks Two to six weeks

Getting the most from a Christmas visit

Plan your visit, browse the full festive programme, and reserve seats for the Christmas pantomime at figueresaescena.com. Tickets released in October tend to move quickly, particularly for the early-December performances that anchor the start of the season.