OH NO, pantomime season is not behind them.
For it’s eternally Christmas for one Macclesfield household that pens festive theatre hits all yea round.
Writers Mark Chatterton, 44, and Sarah Nixon, who live in Macclesfield town centre, are both actors who took to creating pantos 12 years ago, and now co-author yuletide treats for the Oldham Coliseum and Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre.
The partners, who met on the set of Oliver Twist as kids growing up in Bramhall, have three lucky children Elliot, seven, Joelan, five, and two-year-old Milly, who go to Parkroyal Primary School.
Sarah said: "It’s eternally Christmas, we are always pulling crackers.
"Joking aside, we carry a dictaphone around to record any panto ideas we have in the supermarket or in the swimming baths, even if it is the summer.
"The kids see us laughing when we write and become interested, so they become a kind of test audience.
"If they laugh or not we keep certain bits in and chop and change them around."
Work begins at the end of January for the pair, who have appeared in Coronation Street, Heartbeat and Cops, when it is decided what play they will write and then, when they are not acting, the thespians bash out a panto classic.
Mark said: "Once we know the title of the pantomime, we’ll set about producing a storyboard, then, by March or April, we need to be in a position for the set designers to start work.
"What we really love doing is lots of slapstick. We have to put the usual jokes in – the ‘it’s behind you’ types of line – because it’s tradition.
"We put the more topical gags in closer to the time of the show and try to identify themes which sum up the year."
Their works aren’t ‘boo-hiss’ commercial pantos, they are repertory productions rehearsed for three months and performed for the same length of time.
The couple have just signed up to do the Liverpool Everyman Theatre next year and are waiting on other offers from around the North West.
Sarah added: "It’s a great, fun job.
"It’s about silly dust and magic, and of course we love it."
