London based New Zealand accordionist Alison Worthington was featured center stage as well as being an integral part of the pit orchestra during the recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Pantomime production based on The Little Mermaid. The show completed a week long run at the Peacock Theatre in London before taking the show to The Alexandra in Birmingham.

A PwC Manager, Alison was one of a cast of 250 staff and alumni who worked together on all aspects of the Pantomime production in their spare time, covering everything from script writing, costume design, make-up, props, backstage crew, front of house, music, pit orchestra and of course, being in the cast. The PwC Pantomime is an important part of their community affairs program in the UK and is supported financially by the PwC Management Board and the fundraising efforts of the PwC Pantomime Production Team.

The PwC Pantomime aims to bring joy to children and spark in them a life-long love of the performing arts by giving them the chance to see a theatrical production at a professional theatre. Each year, PwC gives away around 8,000 tickets to disadvantaged children from inner city schools, charities and community groups, in addition to providing free transportation to the show and an interval snack, courtesy of generous sponsors. Special performances are signed for hearing impaired children and described for visually impaired children.

The Little Mermaid was the 38th PwC Pantomime and each year the Pantomime supports a different charity. This season PwC was proud to be working with Nacoa. Nacoa (The National Association for Children of Alcoholics) was founded in 1990 to address the needs of children affected by a parent’s drinking or similar addictive problem. This includes children of all ages, many of whose problems only become apparent in adulthood. It started as a single helpline and has grown to have UK wide ambassadors and patrons and provides expert bespoke training for any professional touched by the issue of parental alcohol problems.

Pantomime is a form of musical comedy designed for family entertainment and is often based on traditional fairy tales. It is expected that the audience joins in with the performance, for example booing at the bad character or shouting out phrases to the performers. There are key characters that appear in all pantomimes, such as the Dame, and there are often male actors dressed as women and female actors dressed as men – all part of the comedy! The UK is one of the few countries that perform pantomimes.

For this production Alison introduced the accordion to the musical director Rumnique Kalirai who was delighted to not only include the accordion as part of the main orchestra, but also to feature Alison performing onstage as part of the production numbers.

In addition to her PWC work, Alison maintains an active accordion career including performing in the London Accordion Orchestra under the direction of Ian Watson, attending International Accordion events both as a Delegate and part of the organizing team and organizing accordion competitions and festivals.