1998 marks Iain Lauchlan’s tenth fantastic year as Co-Writer, Director and Dame of The Belgrade Theatre’s traditional family pantomime. This year we will be serving a large family slice of romance, slapstick, silly songs and jokes, in the form of the nation’s favourite love story - Sleeping Beauty - complete with fairies, witches and a magical time machine…

Audiences will be treated to a visual spectacular with sumptuous costumes and stunning sets; as well as singalong songs, audience participation and the usual madcap chases and dame-induced chaos!

Patrons have been clamouring to buy tickets for Sleeping Beauty since the show went on sale back in April – over 27,000 in fact and that many people cannot be wrong! Sleeping Beauty is set to break all box office targets – including that of last year’s hugely successful Cinderella.

As ever, the Belgrade’s access team will be hosting pre-performance ‘picnics’, where blind and partially – sighted patrons are given the unique opportunity to explore the specially designed tactile set and costumes, as well as meet and greet the cast prior to watching their chosen performance. Nine performances will be Sign Language Interpreted, and seven will be Audio Described. For the first time ever, The Belgrade will be conducting a special pre-performance tour for our deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons; this will focus on meeting the characters and exploring the technical elements of ‘putting on a show'.

Audiences will recognise many familiar ‘Belgrade’ faces this year. The cast are:

• Colleen Daley – Fairy

• Justin Fletcher – Jester

• Bob Golding – Baddy

• Andy Hockley – the King

• Claire Humphrey – Sleeping Beauty

• Iain Lowe – Baddy

• Sally Mais - The Prince

• Michael Royce – Chamberlain

• Katy Stephens – Caraboss The Witch