As Steve Hili prepares for his fifth Adult Panto – this time based on the timeless story of The Sleeping Beauty – Iggy Fenech chats to the man in the mankini himself to find out more about this year’s star-studded pantomime for adults in the summer.

This year’s Adult Panto, The Sleeping Beauty, is tongue-in-cheek all right, but the visuals are even more, shall we say, cheeky? Aurora is pictured, supposedly, halfway through her 100-year deep sleep. Her fake eyelashes point towards her Mona Lisa smile… What is she trying to tell us? What secrets does her smile hold? Probably, that Prince Charming has done his job…

“This is our fifth anniversary show so we are pulling out all the stops!” Steve Hili, who writes and stars in the Panto, says proudly. “This is unlike any version of The Sleeping Beauty you have ever seen before, though. Yes, we’ve got a malevolent baddie. Yes. we‘ve got a king. But we’ve also got a mad duck, a magical ġbejna, an out-of-control Dame and me, in a mankini!”

Of course, Steve’s Adult Panto has never shied away from going overboard in both its humour and its subject matter. Beneath the witty one-liners and the rehashed songs, jabs are taken at anyone and everyone while addressing society’s double standards about gender, sexual liberation, politics, cultural trends and, of course, what he fondly refers to as our ‘Malteseness’.

This is one of the reasons why the small, experimental show has, in just four years, grown to become one of our summer calendar’s most highly-anticipated events. Yet, through it all, it has remained true to the spirit of the first edition, which is to say that it has never taken itself too seriously. Steve would rather be naughty, funny and unapologetic than anything else.

“It is not for everyone,” he reminds us. “The perfect audience member would be someone who could laugh at extreme silliness, quite a bit of naughtiness, politics and themselves… If that’s not something you feel like you can do, then you’ll probably leave the theatre offended or upset!”

I would also add that you’d need to be ready to laugh at celebrities, too, as this year’s show will feature some local personality cameos over and above the star-studded cast made up of Toni Attard, Taryn Mamo Cefai, Naomi Night, Joe Depasquale, Sean Briffa, Undine Laverve and Gwilym Bugeja. 

“The team behind the production has changed very little since last year. We are a real team and we all know how the formula works. We were just recently remarking, in fact, how the conversations we have between ourselves about some of the costumes or scenes are sometimes not fit to be heard by ‘normal’ people, so it’s not easy to find someone to keep that magic alive…”

I don’t want to inflate Steve’s ego much, but he does know a thing or two about winning formulas. He does, after all, tour across Europe and Australia with his shows, perform regularly at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and write for international media companies like the BBC and Sky. That, coupled with the experience of producer Michael Fenech, who also does the highly-popular Bla Kondixin shows, is a safe bet that your night out at the Adult Panto will be a memorable one.

But, yes, a panto for adults in summer is a weird combination. And, while I’ve been to a few and can say that the concept truly (and maybe surprisingly) works, I think we also need to delve a bit into how it originated.

Interestingly, the first Adult Panto was a by-product of the lines that were ‘too much’ for a traditional Christmas panto.

“During rehearsals for the normal panto, the cast would come up with jokes that were deemed ‘too rude’ or ‘too political’ to be put on stage for a show that was, after all, aimed at kids.

“And that’s what got me thinking: What if we did a version of the panto that was not aimed at kids? Something naughty, instead of nice, for adults. And so, why not go the full hog and produce it in summer instead of at Christmastime?”

Well, why not indeed! And you can experience the magic that has evolved over the past five years of Adult Panto at Spazju Kreattiv (St James Cavalier) in Valletta between June 1 and 3 and 6 and 10.

Oh, and if you take a fancy to Steve Hili is his mankini, you can catch him in his upcoming stand-up special called Manhood, on in London this August!

www.adultpantomalta.com

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