Snow White - Interview #2
“ Rude, crude and not for prudes, this is the very adult, very hilarious, very demure pantomime from the team who brought you The Diana Mixtape, Death Drop, Cool Rider, Gals Aloud. “
Simon J. Webb, We’re having a chat during the photoshoot for this year's TuckShop panto, Snow White, that opens in just over a month on 15th December at London's Emerald Theatre. Given this conversation is taking place in mid-November during one of the mildest autumns in history I was wondering, on a scale of one to ten, just how Christmassy you are feeling right now?
Kate Butch, Oh, good God! I won't lie, I'm not feeling super Christmassy.
SJW, It’s currently very festive in this room though, surrounded as we are by the stars of this years production.
KB, It is. Everyone's very sparkly... and loud. I think if you squint it's beginning to look a bit like Christmas...
SJW, (laughs).
KB, ... plus everyone's shouting, which is a lot like my family Christmas anyway. (laughs). I love it. I think I'll feel Christmassy once I've had about six mince pies ... six mince pies in about six minutes.
SJW, Will wardrobe need to let your costume out afterwards?
KB, (laughs) Oh, just a bit, yeah. The materials stretchy so it's fine.
SJW, Your performances have always been one of the reasons these panto’s have become one of my more recent favourite festive traditions...
KB, Oh, stop it! (laughs)
SJW, ... but I also see you have co-written this years extravaganza!
KB, I have, yes.
SJW, How did that come about, and what can we expect this year?
KB, Ok, so Crudi Dench, who is my co-writer, along with the wonderful Eleanor Mason who is also contributing, co-wrote Drag Queens Versus Zombies a couple of years ago at the Edinburgh Fringe, which I was in along with the sequel, Drag Queens Versus Vampires. The lovely Chris Clegg from TuckShop saw us in that production and asked us to get involved with this years panto. We all started drag together about ten years ago, which is wild because I’m only 17... and so we’ve all got a similar sense of humour. We all work really well together and we’re just going to create some absolute camp nonsense. I’ve got a bit of experience of what people expect from a TuckShop panto having been in the last two, so you'll get plenty of “He's behind you!”, along with me eating lots of fondant fancies and everyone calling Yshee Black ugly... you know, all the Christmas classics. (laughs).
SJW, And I see Ophelia Love has been relegated to Villager No. 4 once again!
KB, Poor Ophelia Love... she's not even turned up for today's photo shoot... part-timer. (laughs)
SJW, Obviously you have always brought your a-game to show, but is it any different now that you’ve had a hand in writing this one... although, I hear a rumour that as we are sitting here, the script’s not quite finished yet...?
KB, (gasps).
SJW, Has pen actually touched paper yet?
KB, You mustn't be so wicked! (laughs). We're currently in the 'redrafting' process. The thing is, a script is a living, breathing organism and, from personal experience, the script that's on the page is rarely the script that gets performed on the stage. I’m fully expecting all of these awful, horrible drag monsters to bastardise my work! (laughs).
SJW, Unlike yourself of course?
KB, I would never dream of it! I have the utmost respect for writers. (laughs). But it's always going to be changing and growing, and we want to be on the pulse with cultural references, so there'll still be stuff going in all the way up to Christmas.
SJW, Will we be getting any Trump references?
KB, We’ll probably put a bit of Trump in, but we're really hoping for some more insanity from the new Wicked press tour, because last year we got a lot of mileage out of the whole “holding space” thing, so hopefully we’ll be getting some good moments from those ladies.
SJW, Did you have any connection with panto when you were growing up, either just seeing it or maybe even performing in one?
KB, The first time I was actually ever in drag was in fact for a panto during my second year in primary school.
SJW, Oh, wow.
KB, The show was Puss in Boots, and no one was volunteering to be Widow Twankey... so I put my hand up. I thought, “The show must go on! Someone's got to be Widow Twankey!”, and they said, “Sure, why not?”, and... I'm not gonna lie.... I brought the house down with my starring role, (laughs), and I thought, “Putting on a wig and making people laugh could be a career... let's give it a go!”.
SJW, It'll come as no surprise that as well as being an all-drag panto, there’s going to be plenty of adult humour...
KB, Please don't bring your children... that's all I'm going to say. Every year there's lots of filth and this years won’t be any different. Naturally I don't want to spoil anything... but it's all just horrible and nasty, with evil little jokes that I think people will be able to have a good ol' guttural laugh to... to help bring in the festive season.
SJW, Fantastic! This is also going to be the longest run of a TuckShop panto.
KB, Yes, and if you come on the first night... hang on, that sounds wrong... if you ‘come’ on the first night go and see a doctor, see a therapist... that’s disgusting! (laughs).
SJW, (laughs).
KB, But if you come and 'see the show' on the first night, and then come again on the last night, I think they are going to be such different shows, because throughout the run, as we get into it we'll be adding in little bits here and there. So it will probably be about three times longer by the end...
SJW, Well I’ll definitely be coming at the end then.
KB, That's your business! (laughs).
SJW, (laughs).
KB, But there's some queens... I don't want to mention any names... ‘Kitty Scott Claus', (laughs), who will be very professional during rehearsals, but as soon as the lights hit the stage in the theatre, she’ll be an absolute nightmare adding bits!
SJW, Traditionally drag has always been about reacting to the audience and being very quick witted though. How much scope is there within a scripted panto to do that, because I remember when I saw TuckShop's Peter Pan last year, it looked like there were moments of pure ad-lib.... Which could obviously have just been some exceptionally good acting...
KB, Don't give us that much credit... (laughs). Honestly, it's just us being silly, and we're all such big personalities once you put us in a room together? There's a reason why most pantos only have one or two drag artists in them, because otherwise it just descends into chaos, which is both stupid and fabulous, and I think that’s what people come to the TuckShop panto to see. It’s for the chaos... so there will be a lot of ad-libbing.
SJW, Is it hard to get things back on track once the ad-libs start taking things off on a bit of a tangent?
KB, Well, because I'm a professional actor, it’s not hard for me, (laughs), but I can't say the same for everybody else.
SJW, Whilst Learning lyrics for a lip-sync seems a manageable amount of homework, how has it been learning a full script?
KB, Well it's quite easy for me to learn a full script because I've written half of it, (laughs), and if I say a line wrong, then I'll just say that it was how I intended to write it, but if anyone else gets the line wrong, I'll kill them...
SJW, (laughs).
KB, ... and if anyone is mean to me during the rehearsal process I'll just write them out.
SJW, You’ve got the power! (laughs).
KB, Yeah. They'll suddenly be dead in the first scene. (laughs).
SJW, As that two year old kid doing your first panto, a three week run on the West End must have seemed beyond your wildest imagination. How does it feel now that you’re actually going to be doing exactly that?
KB, It feels... correct. (laughs). It feels like that's the trajectory. There are people who appeared in school plays that never done anything with it and are now working in offices... but I think I was probably a child that should have been told, “No”, a bit more,. Maybe I would have had a proper job if I'd been told, “No”, but because my parents foolishly allowed me to pursue this silly business... I think West End is a good place to end up. I hope they're proud.
TuckShop’s Snow White is on at the Emerald Theatre until 4th January 2026. Tickets available here
interview & photography]: Simon J. Webb