REVIEW: Johnny McKnight: She’s Behind You – Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow

It is a testament to the popularity, audience pulling power, reputation and sheer talent of Johnny McKnight that this performance billed as a “lecture” (and indeed it started life as part of the Cameron Lecture Series, a collaboration between the University of Glasgow, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and John Tiffany,) has the auditorium of the Pavilion Theatre packed to the rafters.

Clad in pastel blue gingham, frills and red glitter high tops, as one of his own magnificent creations Dorothy Blawna-Gale from The Tron’s Wizard of Oz, McKnight is here to deliver a talk on the past, present and future of the pantomime dame.

On the surface it appears to be a rip-roaring ride through these larger than life caricatures that enliven the stage during the festive season, but it is oh, so much more than that. McKnight charts his own unease at the grotesque portrayal of these past their prime, ugly and on the scrapheap women (in reality the glue that holds the world together) and the utter lack of representation for any character who dares to exist out with the traditional ‘family’ unit. An unease that grew since around 2002/3 when he began to play the dame himself.

The current reigning supremo of the post-modern Pantosphere delivers belly laugh after laugh all the while charting the sometimes rocky path to a more inclusive, expansive, kinder but still hysterical, representation of the modern world around us (a path that even today is still paved with potholes and pitfalls). For all the laughs, there’s as much pathos, moments to reflect and to provoke discussion. Theatre should not only be a reflection of the present but continue to push the boundaries and McKnight, in all his glorious genius continues to do just that at The Tron and Stirling’s Macrobert Arts Centre.

That a forty-something man in a gingham frock, can deliver a lecture on pantomime dames and take the audience on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, hold them in their entirety in the palm of his hand throughout and see them rise as one to a standing ovation at the end, says everything that you need to know about the national treasure that is the phenomenally talented Johnny McKnight.

She’s Behind You deserves to be seen and heard by as wide an audience as possible. Just glorious, a five-star treat.

Reviewed on 19 January 2025