She's behind you! Johnny McKnight on the past, present and future of the Scottish panto dame

Staged in memory of the much-loved and highly influential Glasgow University theatre lecturer Alasdair Cameron, who died in 1994, the lecture series was founded in 2019 by Glasgow University and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and is the brainchild of one of Cameron’s students, the internationally acclaimed director John Tiffany; and in 2024, McKnight was invited to lecture on the subject of the great pantomime Dame tradition he so vividly embodies in the pantos he has created, mainly for the MacRobert in Stirling, and the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.

McKnight took one look at the Bute Hall, and decided to throw down a challenge to the august surroundings by delivering his lecture in full panto costume, dressed as Dorothy Blawna-Gale, the mature but still gingham-clad heroine of his 2022 Tron panto The Wizard of Oz. And so was born She’s Behind You!, his meditation on the past, present and future of the Scottish panto dame, acclaimed at Glasgow University last year, and now set to reappear - for one afternoon only - this weekend at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow.

“I suppose like most freelance theatre workers, I don’t spend much time looking back,” says McKnight. “You’re always thinking about the next project, trying to ensure that you have a professional future lined up.

“So when I was asked to do the lecture, it was a really rare opportunity, for me, to look back at the history of panto Dames in Scotland - the one who really influenced me as a wee boy was Johnny Beattie, at the Gaiety Theatre in Ayr - and also to think about what I had done in my own panto work, over the last 20 years.

“When I first began to play Dame, around 2002-3, I was barely even out as a gay man, and I felt uneasy about the whole business. I felt I just didn’t see women in the traditional way that panto Dames often embody; and the lecture is really about how, as I became more confident in my own identity, I was able to work on that tradition and develop it, through a time of change for all gay people.”

As for where panto is heading now, McKnight feels the possibilities are endless; he is an admirer, for example, of the female dame characters pioneered by Elaine C Smith, in Aberdeen and at the Glasgow King’s, and would like to see other female performers taking that forward.

For now, though, it’s all about preparing She’s Behind You! for the lovely panto stage of the Pavilion, in a rare and exciting moment of collaboration between the University, the Conservatoire, and Trafalgar Entertainment, the Pavilion’s new owners.

“Panto is so often an overlooked and under-appreciated art form,” says Jamie Gordon, the Pavilion’s director, “and we’re just delighted to be paying tribute to it in this way.”

And for Professor Dee Heddon, of Glasgow University, it’s also a deeply satisfying way to celebrate the memory of her late teacher, Alasdair Cameron, who was a mighty champion of Scottish popular theatre in all its forms.

“When Johnny gave the lecture last year,” she says, “it was obvious that it was a show in itself, and just crying out for performance on one of Scotland’s great panto stages. Now, thanks to the Pavilion, it’s happening. Alasdair would be absolutely delighted by that; and I just can’t wait to see it again.”

She’s Behind You is at the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, 19 January, 3pm. For tickets see https://trafalgartickets.com/pavilion-theatre-glasgow/en-GB/event/other/shes-behind-you-tickets