A popular village pantomime which has been staged for more than 40 years has been cancelled halfway through rehearsals due to concerns over ‘cultural insensitivity’.
Ansty has enjoyed four decades of its annual show, and local children had been busily learning their lines for this year’s show – Aladdin, which was due to be staged in early December.
But Jenny Norman, the show’s director, says she was forced to cancel the show after members of the cast were approached with complaints.
She posted in the village Facebook group: “It is with regret that Madcap has found it necessary to cancel this year’s production of Aladdin following expressions of unease about cultural insensitivity that were made to the cast.
“Consideration was given to ‘sanitising’ the script but the cast considered this was not in keeping with the tradition of pantomime and to prevent causing offence to anyone, the decision was made to cancel.”
Children have been left bitterly disappointed, and villagers confused by the decision. Nothing has derailed the annual tradition before – a panto was even held during covid, on Zoom. People were left scratching their heads as to why little Ansty was forced to cancel when many big theatres were continuing to stage the show.
Amanda Jenks said: “It’s on at the Tivoli in Wimborne among loads of other places this year. I bet the ‘woke brigade’ get the blame for this, but we don’t want to see the kids go without! I can’t for the life of me see what the problem might be?”
Kate Hill said: “It’s a very difficult conversation to have with a seven-year-old who has overcome many challenges to learn their lines.”
David Norman said on Facebook: “It’s difficult to see how any pantomime would not enrage the woke brigade even if we went to Snow Neutral and the Seven Non-Binary Vertically Challenged Humanoids.”