Zoe Szuch/The Chief

Actors Cindy Watkins and Skai Stevenson rehearse their lines as royal parents in the Between Shifts Theatre production of Sleeping Beauty at the Eagle Eye Theatre on Wednesday (Nov. 25).

Dust off your platform shoes, brush up on the lyrics to your favourite ’70s disco tunes and get ready for some rowdy theatre audience participation at the next Between Shifts Theatre performance.

The 15-year-old theatre company is performing a modernized pantomime version of the fairytale classic Sleeping Beauty at the Eagle Eye Theatre this weekend (Nov. 27 and 28) and from Thursday (Dec. 3) to Saturday, Dec. 5.

“We’ve taken the general story of Sleeping Beauty and re-written it to make it more contemporary in a way,” said theatre group co-founder Kathy Daniels. “It’s like taking a fairytale and completely fracturing it and just turning it into a real tongue and cheek. A real send up.”

The “panto” style of theatre is a longstanding British aspect of live theatre, which usually includes song, dance, in-jokes often referencing local businesses and politicians, audience participation and a hearty share of cross dressing.

“It gives you an opportunity to make reference to you own home town, your own business, to local politicians – [it’s] an opportunity to take the piss out of any of those things,” said Daniels.

“You can read any of the pantos from Britain, Australia, Canada or anywhere in the world, and you will see they all have the same sort of format.”

The 15-person cast of veterans and rookies has been rehearsing the 13 musical numbers and four dance numbers since September.

Traditionally in panto productions, the musical numbers are limited to old show tunes, but Between Shifts Theatre started performing music from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s over the last few years, and they plan to stick with the newer music.

This version of Sleeping Beauty will include a ton of disco tracks, as well as a Lady Gaga tune, a Black Eyed Peas song and Michael Jackson’s epic mega hit, Thriller.

Local Paul Fletcher is the lyricist and dramaturge for the production, Nancy Thompson and Lise Hamilton designed the stage sets, while Lynn Wong created the psychedelic costumes.

“Lynn Wong – who’s won several awards for her costume design – has taken the court theme and disco-ized it, if you can,” Daniels said.

“She added some sequins and go-go boots and away we go. So there are some pretty crazy looking costumes, that’s for sure. They’re pretty wild.”

Admission to the musical Sleeping Beauty production costs $15 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased at Billie’s Bouquet, at the Adventure Centre or at the door before show starts.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and curtain time is at 7:30 p.m. The production will hit the stage twice on Saturday (Nov. 28) and Saturday (Dec. 5) with matinees at 2 p.m. and a regular evening showtime at 7:30 p.m.

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