TRADITIONAL pantomime is an over-used, glib and lazy term. No such show exists but theatres do like to build a pantomime tradition of their own.

York Theatre Royal has Berwick Kaler, Martin Barrass and David Leonard, and now Harrogate Theatre is establishing its own triumvirate: Scottish dame Alan McMahon, writer Nicholas Pegg and director Lennox Greaves.

This year the Harrogate trio has re-united for a pantomime that, believe it or not, is opening in November: keeping up with the unwelcome habit of shops bringing out the festive tinsel ever earlier.

The curtain rises tonight on Greaves's production of Babes In The Wood, in which Richard the Lionheart is otherwise engaged on the Crusades, England is quaking beneath the tyrannical rule of his evil brother, Prince John, and Dame Henrietta Haddock is about to re-write history.

Lennox Greaves had already starred in two Harrogate pantos, Aladdin and Jack And The Beanstalk (alongside McMahon in 1999) when the invitation came from artistic director Rob Swain to direct the 2000 production of The Sleeping Beauty. "Rob wanted to take a break from doing the panto; he knew I'd been working with students as a director at Mountview Theatre school, so he said 'How about you doing it?'," Lennox recalls.

"I was very pleased as I was being offered the chance to continue a tradition already being established in Harrogate. I knew the theatre; I knew plenty of the repertory company; I knew the writer."

He is delighted to be picking up the reins again for Babes In The Wood. "Each repertory theatre panto must establish its own character, and Harrogate's show is very different again to York Theatre Royal's show," says Lennox.

"Ours is a very good family show where we don't have a lot to spend on special effects, and this panto is very strong on story. There are a lot of Babes In The Wood productions where the story is non-existent but here the writer keeps the story going so it's very much a play as well as a pantomime."

Director Greaves and writer Pegg select the cast together, looking for new faces who can handle the particular stresses and pressures of pantomime while working alongside such regulars as Alan McMahon and Edward York (this year the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham).

"My preamble to anyone new at the auditions is always to tell them that this is an actor's pantomime," says Lennox. In other words, he wants an ensemble piece with stellar performances rather than star names.

Alan McMahon is a case in point, having carved a niche in Harrogate with his own brand of dame. "He's so enjoyable to watch because his dame is so unusual, unique. I've never seen one like him," says Lennox. "It's his combination of being 6ft 4, pencil slim and clad in these extraordinary dresses - which he inhabits so well - and being so warm.

"There is the tradition of the dame that people respect but don't love, but Harrogate's audience loves Alan. Just as Edward York is also a very unusual and loveable actor; with Eddie, you get someone who is off the wall and whose timing is different. I just let him get on with it and have fun."

The balance must be right, however, says Lennox: "If your actors are having fun, you're there, but you don't want them to be self indulgent as we've seen in so many commercial pantos."

Babes In The Wood, Harrogate Theatre, until January 12. Tickets: £7.30 to £14.20; ring 01423 502116.