Giant makes a welcome return as Stage 1 takes on panto Jack and the Beanstalk

This year for their 28th annual pantomime they are reviving Jack and the Beanstalk for the fourth time, with a fresh cast full of new talent.

Previous Stage 1 productions of the well-loved story have featured a fantastic ‘real’ giant on the stage, but this year there was an epic quest to track down the giant even before the show could begin.

Director Terry Mills said: “When adults present Jack and the Beanstalk it is not uncommon to find that they overcome the problem of getting a convincing giant to appear on stage by arranging the script so that all his ‘doings’ take place off stage and you never actually see him.

“As you can imagine, for us, the visual impact of a real giant on stage with a cast totally made up of children was not to be missed and I was very fortunate in finding a most impressive giant available from a theatrical costumer in Surrey. Over the years he has had rave reviews in our local paper.”

Unfortunately, six years after the last version of Jack and the Beanstalk, Terry found the giant had been sold.

A frantic search began, with Terry contacting everyone he could in an attempt to find the giant’s whereabouts.

He had been hired out across the country and eventually sold on and no one could hunt him down.

Just as he had begun to lose all hope, Terry got an email from a woman who said she had bought the giant costume and that he was available for the Stage 1 production.

Terry said: “So this weekend, the woman is bringing the giant up from Reading where he now lives and like all good fairy stories, all’s well that ends well. Our cast of 32 children aged eight to 13 are all working very hard and can’t wait to meet the giant.”

See the giant in action at Stopsley High School this weekend.