Boo, hiss for council's red tape
Jack was banned from climbing his beanstalk after a risk assessment – and now even milk for the pantomime dame's tea has come under scrutiny from the health and safety brigade.
It must be stored at no warmer than 8C – while woe betide the volunteer who sells interval ice cream which is not deemed cold enough.
Scenery must be tested for splinters, throwing boiled sweets into the audience is banned in case someone is hit, and only people on an official list are allowed to close the curtain. You couldn't make it up.
But despite issuing a mind-boggling list of "ridiculous" health and safety rules, council bureaucrats are not so hot on making sure their own facilities are up to scratch, according to members of the Brierley Hill Musical Theatre Company.
Members say they have been left to rig up curtains and tents to create makeshift dressing rooms for boys and girls in the 35-strong chorus for its pantomine Dick Whittington, which opens on Saturday.
And adult actors have to use a storeroom under the stairs to get ready for shows.
Yet the amateur actors, who have been using Brierley Hill Civic Hall since the 60s, say they have to spend hours sifting through red tape to meet health and safety regulations laid down by Dudley Council.
The biggest pantomime of all, members say, is the hall's backstage facilities, which they have branded "poorer than Cinderella's kitchen". Theatre group chairman Graham Smith says actors are subjected to a barrage of bureaucratic form filling and "microscopic" health and safety inspections. But the council is failing to do its share by providing even basic facilities at the hall, he says.
He accused council leaders of spending less than £10,000 a year on maintaining the borough's largest public theatre.
Mr Smith, aged 59, said: "It's no wonder the backstage facilities are poorer than Cinderella's kitchen – facilities that don't even come up to the council's own regulations.
"In order to accommodate the adults and children in a cast, all local groups using the hall have to spend hours creating extra dressing room facilities by putting up tents and curtains. Even then, most of the performers have to get ready in a grim storeroom with no washing and toilet facilities."
The Brierley Hill group is also hampered by government health and safety legislation, meaning last year Jack could not climb his beanstalk without a harness.
The beanstalk was 30ft tall but Jack would only have been allowed to climb 4ft from the ground provided he wore a harness. So the idea was abandoned and he just gazed up at it instead. Actors can no longer throw hard boiled sweets into the audience and now throw bags of crisps instead. Custard pies can still be thrown but the cast have to clean up any mess.
Cabinet member for the environment and culture Councillor Karen Shakespeare urged the group to talk to the council about their concerns. She said: "The hall is very well used and the National Youth Theatre perform there as well, which is a good sign.
"We have a lot of good shows on there.
"I have not been made aware that anybody is unhappy. It's a very cost-effective venue for the people using it."
Dick Whittington runs from Saturday until January 17.