A VIP offer awaits a lucky family at this winter’s Rowntree Players pantomime, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

A golden ticket – promising the holder and their family will be treated like a baron or a dame –could await those buying tickets from the JoRo box office when bookings open at 10am on Saturday.

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame will run from December 3 to 10, written by Rowntree Players' Andy Welch and Howard Ella, with Gemma McDonald sharing directorial duties with Ella.

This year’s festive show will see the Players transporting the audience from the chocolate-fragranced streets of York to the city of Paris where the beautiful Esmeralda and Notre Dame bell ringer Quasimodo take on the evil Governor LeTrump in yet another "brand new rollicking romp of a panto".

The golden tickets will grant the prize-winners VIP access to the closing night, December 10, including front-row seats, a backstage tour and their choice of interval ice-cream. Anyone buying tickets in person from the theatre box office, near Yearsley Swimming Pool on Haxby Road, on the opening weekend will have a chance of winning the tickets.

“This is the first year that we’ve had a box office at the theatre itself selling tickets," says box office director Martin Rowley. "So we’re bracing ourselves for the first flurry of panto enthusiasts keen to get their regular front-row seats to see what hilarious antics the Rowntree Players will be getting up to. Our gates will be open early, and we even have volunteers on standby for the night before if anyone decides to camp on the drive to get the first tickets.”

Co-creator Howard Ella is excited to be making a song and dance about the show: “We have a great audience who come back year after year to experience the Rowntree Players panto: the only theatre-based panto in York to be filled entirely with home-grown talent."

Walk-up ticket sales will open at 10am on Saturday. Free parking will be available in the theatre car park, adjacent to Yearsley Pool. Those unable to make it the theatre can buy tickets online from 9am on Monday at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk

* BUDDING actors still have time to vie for a role in the Rowntree Players pantomime. Auditions will be staged on Sunday, July 24 at Door 84, Lowther Street, York from 2pm to 6pm; visit rowntreeplayers.co.uk for an audition pack.