THE panto season has arrived again. Oh yes it has! And quick out of the blocks – as you might expect in the Joseph Rowntree Theatre’s 75th anniversary year – are the Rowntree Players with Mother Goose, which opens tomorrow.

The legend of the Goose that laid a Golden Egg is well known, but it’s never been told quite like this. Written by home-grown talent Howard Ella, who also directs, the Players’ Mother Goose veers so far off the course navigated by previous pantomimes of the same name that it takes in an intergalactic chase, rockets, aliens… and even the odd Space Gorilla!

This year’s show is co-written by Barry Benson, who also steps on stage as dame for the third year running, bringing to the role his usual boundless energy and penchant for interacting with the gents in the audience.

Leon Thompson and Graham Bilton reprise their regular roles as Willy and Baron, with the promise of much slapstick and silly goings on. Julie Harrison and Marie–Louise Surgenor, meanwhile, return as Fairy and Tilly Nilly respectively, along with Lee Gemmill, who takes to the stage for his second year with the players as the evil Lord Moldewart.

New blood has been added to the troop in the casting of YSM regular Charlie Young. It’s her first go at pantomime and she leaps straight in at the deep end as principal boy Houston Tightwad. But will Baron Tightwad ever get his rent from Gertie? Will Houston ever pluck up enough courage to ask Tilly out? Why is Lord Moldevart so interested in Priscilla and will Fairy Floella be able to keep him under control?

Book your tickets now if you want to find out the answers to these and many other questions.

With the same production, costume and stage management teams as last year’s Dick Whittington, the society is hoping for another box-office success.

And it is great to see a community theatre opened 75 years ago by Seebohm Rowntree with the express aim of providing a venue which would act as a “centre of those recreational and educational activities which make for a full and happy life” still continuing to do exactly that three quarters of a century later.

The Rowntree Players performed the stage play Hassan at the opening of the theatre on November 18, 1935. So it is fitting that they should still be centre stage at the climax of the theatre’s anniversary year. Oh yes it is.

• Mother Goose runs at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre in Haxby Road from December 4 to 11. Matinees at 2pm on 4, 5 & 11; evening performances at 7:30pm (though please note: there is no evening performance on Sunday December 5). Tickets £12, concessions £10, from rowntreeplayers.co.uk or 07927 026071.