Hook Players

The Hook Village Panto for 2026 will be Hansel and Gretel, by Alan Frayn.

Audition dates:

Tuesday 1st September 7.30 to 10pm

Thursday 3rd September 7.30 to 10pm

One of the things we particularly love about this script is that it has a really strong ensemble cast. There are lots of principal roles, but also plenty to do in the chorus, including smaller characters and chorus members with individual lines.

The main roles include:

• Hansel & Gretel – our two young heroes; warm, likeable and central to the story.
• Fritz – their kind but rather hen-pecked father.
• Hildegard – their wonderfully horrible stepmother, with lots of comic potential.
• Peggy Pumpernickel – the main Dame; larger than life, bargain-obsessed and gloriously ridiculous.
• Wally – Peggy’s silly son and one of our main audience-interaction characters.
• Heather – Peggy’s bright, warm-hearted daughter and principal girl.
• Prince Johann – our traditional romantic Prince.
• Wolfgang – the Prince’s Equerry and another lovely character role.
• Nut-Meg & Basil – a daft forager and gamekeeper forming a classic panto comedy double act.
• Bluebell – the good Fairy of the Forest.
• Nightshade – the wonderfully wicked Witch of the Woods.
• Klaus – an enthusiastic circus ringmaster.
• Russell & Sheryl – Nightshade’s two mischievous crow assistants.
• Otto – a snowy owl with an unfortunate tendency to put “hooo” into absolutely everything!

And importantly, we’re not going to be precious about gender when casting. Come and audition for the characters you think you could have fun with! Some of these roles could be absolutely brilliant played very differently from the traditional expectation. There are also villagers, lumberjacks, circus performers, Nightshade’s minions, gingerbread people, forest creatures and lots more, so please don’t think you need to want a principal role to come along. There are loads of opportunities to get involved without having pages and pages of lines.

And we need people offstage too!

Panto is enormous fun backstage because you really get to stretch your wings and your imagination – and with our MORE IS MORE approach, we definitely want to! We’d love to hear from anyone interested in set design and building, painting, lighting, sound, costumes, props or front of house – whether you already know exactly what you’re doing or haven’t got the faintest idea where to start. If you’ve always had a yen to have a go, we have experienced people who can help and guide you through it. And if you’ve done theatre backstage in the past and have been itching to get involved again, now is the time to scratch that theatre itch!

There really is room for everyone in this one.

Performances are:

Friday 27th November – evening

Saturday 28th November – matinee & evening

Friday 4th December – evening

Saturday 5th December – matinee and evening

Join in the fun!

It’s not all about being on the stage.

So much goes on backstage including set design, painting and building, making costumes, make-up, sound, lighting and special effects, gathering props or simply helping with the front-of-house on performance nights. If you are interested in getting involved, even if you don’t see yourself treading the boards,  please email . There is something for everyone.

If you can’t get involved this time, then please buy a ticket, sit back and enjoy the show.

Play Readings

We are actively seeking plays for future productions and holding play readings, where members read through possible scripts. If you are interested in attending, please send your details via for more information. These play readings are very informal and you don’t have to read if you don’t want to. It’s a great initial introduction to Hook Players and is a good opportunity to meet the group.