Goldilocks and the Three Bears Pantomime Script Spotlight

Just Right… and then some!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a newer entry to pantomime canon and has taken audiences by storm and surprise. Our version sets the story at Dame Bernie Barnum's Circus with her twin clowns Charlie and Cooper, her not-very-strong strongman Sampson, and Psychic Cheryl, whose gift of foresight is best described as occasionally accurate. The villain, Madam Meanie, wants to buy the circus out from under Dame Barnum, and the Three Bears arrive as a dancing act she'd very much like to poach. There is also a custard pie machine called the Pie-O-Matic 6000, which is almost as messy as it is funny.

Synopsis

Barnum's Circus is struggling financially, and Madam Meanie, a rival circus owner with expansion plans and no scruples, has sent her associate Bean to assess the situation. Her plan is to buy Dame Barnum out at a knock-down price and add the whole operation to her growing evil empire.

When Goldilocks encounters the Three Bears in the forest and leads them back to the circus, things take an unexpected turn for everyone. Madam Meanie sees an opportunity in the dancing bears, Dame Barnum sees a way to save her circus, and Baby Bear would really like her lollipop back.

This panto is porridge for the soul!

Straight from the Script

Psychic Cheryl demonstrates her gift:

Psychic Cheryl: 'I will now use the incredible power of my mind to correctly predict where this gentleman lives.' (She reveals the card) 'I knew it! For that is why I have written that you live… at home!'

Dame Barnum: 'That's not a very good prediction.'

Psychic Cheryl: 'I knew you were going to say that!'

Casting Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Who this script suits

With 13 principal characters and three supporting roles, Goldilocks sits in our medium cast scripts, with named parts at every level rather than a handful of leads and a crowd. The circus setting gives you a natural framework for adding acts, and the clown twins Charlie and Cooper are a gift for performers who enjoy physical comedy and quick changes. The Three Bears stay warm, funny and entirely separate from the villain plot until the two threads collide in Act Two. If you want a title a little off the beaten track, a title audiences won't have seen quite as many times as Cinderella or Aladdin, then this is the one among our unusual pantomime scripts that most repays the risk.

None of the three supporting roles asks for a circus skill, which is the useful thing about them, but if you cast possess those talents it’s easy to find places to fit them in. Sampson is the strongman and is written to be visibly nothing of the sort, he is a great cameo role for a small child or someone slight, and always gets a great laugh, Jessie is the juggler and drops everything, so nobody has to learn to juggle, and the only skill Psychic Cheryl needs is keeping a straight face. The circus frame is also the most adaptable in the catalogue, since acts can be added wherever your company has something it wants to show off, and the run of place names in the opening scene is written to be swapped for towns your audience will recognise.

Charlie and Cooper are played by two actors, one who says the line, and another who performs as a ‘body-double’. The twins are told apart by wig colour, red for Charlie and blue for Cooper, and therefore require two identical costumes made and a clever array of face-covering accessories. (Read the script and it’ll make sense!) The joke is that the audience can see perfectly well there are two of them while nobody on stage can, so the part to cast here is the quick change rather than the pair.

The Pie-O-Matic 6000 custard pie machine is imagined to have two people hidden inside it as operators. The arms that reach out of it are worn by an operator, with paper plates fixed to gloved palms and a second person loading them from within, and a gauze front lets those inside see out without being seen. It wants to be set before the tabs open in Act One and set again for Act Two, so build it into the running order rather than the get-in. One more identical arm needs to come from the wings at the end of the scene, which is the joke that pays the whole thing off.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears Reviews

‘I loved the script. It had a clear storyline, great jokes and gave enough scope to add local places in. I was able to add our own music and a few extra characters to accommodate our inclusive group.’
Branching Out Drama Society

‘Packed with laughs, songs, silliness and more puns than you can shake a spoon of porridge at… a truly pawsome pantomime!’
Twyford Amateur Dramatics Society

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