'Richard of Brussels' is only a panto character

You have to be Hector Bruno to play the part of a woman who falls in and out of love with "Richard of Brussels", but if all's fair in love and war, so it is with Christmas pantos.

This year's panto at the Catholic Institute, in Floriana, is called Aladin And The Grandmaster's Daughter. The part of the grandmaster's daughter is played by Mr Bruno, who six years ago teamed up with Paul Testa after the latter had set up the Teatru Rjal Dramatic Company.

This year's script was written by José Micallef and Bryan Muscat is directing, assisted by Pawlu Micallef.

"I always like to have a local theme for our pantos as this goes down really well," Mr Testa said.

In this year's show, the grandmaster's daughter is always locked up in the palace as her father is afraid that illegal immigrants or terrorists would get hold of her. The only one time she was allowed out was when she went to Brussels, and there she met Richard, whom she liked but who annoyed her because he was always speaking on his mobile phone. After visiting his tiny apartment, the love story ended.

Banns that she was again available "on the market" were broadcast on the media, and Aladin, a Monti hawker, expressed interest. His ambitions were however to use her to rise within the echelons of the Order and the intrigue starts to unfold.

Mr Testa, whose core business is travel, said theatre was "a passion, not a business".

"Few people believe there is little money to be made considering the effort. It's even tough to break even. You have about 100 people involved, starting from the cast and the band to back stage and crew.

"You have to fork out money for the set, which is built from scratch every time and for the costumes, made for that particular performance. Then they are washed or dry cleaned and stored. Most are never used again," Mr Testa explained.

Mr Testa said that over the past years the Catholic Institute has experienced a change in the type of people attending theatre and more youths were also attending performances.

The panto will see its first run on December 16 and it is envisaged there will be 14 performances, some of which will be matinees.

Tickets can be obtained from Pawlu Testa Travel in Guardamangia or the Catholic Institute bar or the booking office.