“When I put myself in panto mode, I think ‘Disney cartoon’. You would draw her as a kooky, ditzy girl” – that’s how Suzy Cooper sees herself in panto, writes CHARLES HUTCHINSON.

AFTER 20 York Theatre Royal pantomimes, principal girl Suzy Cooper makes a surprising choice as her favourite role – the first time she played principal boy.

“Aladdin, playing opposite David Leonard as Abanazar,” says the London actress. “It’s strange I should say that as I like playing principal girl best, but it was just a great show, as it was when we did it again.

“It was quirky, it was funny, it had no boundaries because I could do with it whatever I wanted, as I’m not the normal principal boy with long legs, whereas my principal girl is quite manufactured.”

How would she define her principal girl, a role she first played in York at 22 when someone dropped out of the show?

“She’s an ironic character that thankfully most of the audience get, because she’s a fantasy girl,” says Suzy. “When I put myself in panto mode, I think ‘Disney cartoon’. You would draw her as a kooky, ditzy girl, who does that [fluttering] thing with her eyes, so I feel like a cartoon character when I play her. That’s how I submerge into the role, but I can only do that after saying hello, which is the bridge with the audience, saying ‘thank you for having me back’ and then I click into panto routine.”

Part of Dame Berwick Kaler’s skill as the pantomime’s writer is to tap into the individuality of each actor, so whereas principal girl is often a one-dimensional role in other pantomimes, in the Theatre Royal show, she is multi-faceted.

This winter, Suzy’s Margarine Goosegog even turns herself into Kaler’s dame Aggie Goosegog at one point. Swapping roles, Suzy dons the dame’s boots, adopts his heavy gait and exaggerated North Eastern accent and dabs her face with a handkerchief as the dame is wont to do.

Yet it is very much a symbiotic creative relationship.

“I met Berwick at the top of the stairs at the meet-and-greet on the first day of rehearsals in November, and he said, ‘It’s not what I give you, it’s what you do with it’,” she recalls. “It’s our job to be creative with what we get, and Berwick does rely on us putting things into our roles, so it’s 50-50.”

Kaler often talks of the need for pantomime actors to have “likeability”, be it the principal girl or the villain, and while it may be unfair to put Suzy on the spot, the question had to be asked: what makes her so appealing on stage?

“I have funny bones; I find things funny and I think that comes out of my bones when I perform, but you still have to respect the story and serve your character. I could go further than I do but that’s indulgent,” she says. “Instead you have to build on the relationship you have with everyone on stage; that’s what the audience want.”

Where does Suzy, now 45, foresee herself in 10 years’ time? “They say you always have to look ahead 10 years to get even halfway there,” she says. “My son Louis will be 17, and I’ll be looking like Barbara Cartland in panto. I might retrain as a movement therapist or dance therapist. As much as I’m an actor, movement and dance is where I came from and I’d like to work with elderly people or people less fortunate than I am.”

Pantomime would surely still have its place too?

“Maybe I’ll be playing dame by then. He [Kaler] has to give up some time, and I know I can play him. I don’t know what he’s started by having me dress up in disguise as him,” she says. “But who knows? You can’t plan anything in showbusiness. It’s a flaky old life, it really is.”

More likely, those funny bones will still be doing what they do best. “One of my heroines is Lucille Ball, and no one ever talked about her age. They just saw her as funny. Timeless and ageless,” says Suzy.

•Suzy Cooper stars as Margarine Goosegog in Old Mother Goose at York Theatre Royal until January 31. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk