Sleeping Beauty

Perth Theatre brings Sleeping Beauty to the Main House from Friday 27 November to Thursday 31 December, with opening night on 28 November at 7pm. It's the panto season again, and this one comes from the same team behind The Snow Queen, which took home Outstanding Pantomime at the 2025 Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland.

The story is the one you know, but set locally. Laird Sir Coupar Angus and his wife Annie, a famous singer, welcome a baby girl, Aurora, on the night the Northern Lights dance across the sky. Annie's banished sister Malania, known as The Mirthless and a dabbler in the Dark Arts, curses the child from afar: if Aurora pricks her finger on a spinning wheel before her 21st birthday, she'll fall into a Deep Sleep. Aurora is raised as 'Rory' by Dame Livvie McSkivvie and her son Murray, a child-prodigy chef with a talent for pies, and she's saved by a household of lovable chaos, a local psychic called Claire Voyant, and the audience. The production is described as warm, daft and gloriously local, with dazzling sets, sparkling costumes, toe-tapping songs and slapstick that goes spectacularly wrong.

Barrie Hunter plays Dame Livvie McSkivvie, with Jessica Donnelly as Princess Aurora Angus and Lauren Ellis-Steele as Malania the Mirthless. Fiona Wood is Lady Annie Angus, Greg Powrie is Sir Coupar Angus, Ewan Somers is Murray McSkivvie and Jen Cassidy is Claire Voyant, with music director Alan Penman. It's a full cast for a family show, and the Northern Lights start the whole thing off.

Tickets run from £18.50 to £38.50, and each performance lasts about 120 minutes. There are audio described, relaxed and BSL performances available, so it's one that works for a wide range of audiences. The run goes right through to the end of December, from the Main House at Perth Theatre on Mill Street.