TICKETS for Humpty Dumpty, dame Berwick Kaler’s 31st pantomime at York Theatre Royal, will go on sale for personal bookers on Monday at 9am.

In keeping with tradition, queues are expected to form much earlier that morning outside the theatre in St Leonard’s Place. Phone and online booking will open the next morning at 10am on 01904 623568 and yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Humpty Dumpty has been performed only once before during Kaler’s panto reign, in 1988, and 21 years later his new version will run from Thursday, December 10, 2009 to January 30, 2010.

Kaler made up his Dick Turpin panto from scratch for his 30th anniversary show last Christmas and he must work on only the bare bones once more: Humpty sat on a wall and then had a fall.

“That’s not much of a plot even by Berwick’s standards – or is it?” says Kathrin Treacy, the press and marketing officer. Let the team that brought you Dick Turpin The Panto stretch your imagination to Herculean proportions with a brand new version of this classic nursery rhyme.”

So many questions will be answered in Kaler’s script: will the orphaned Humpty find a mother? Can Humpty protect the tiny Kingdom of Pantoloon from the evil Eggula? What happens when the panto heroes are forced to venture into the real world?

“Precise details of Humpty Dumpty will remain a secret but audiences can rest assured they’ll be in for some big surprises,” promises Kathrin.

The 1988 production, which had a considerably shorter run from December 16 to January 21, marked Kaler’s return to the Theatre Royal panto after a two-year hiatus, since when he has enjoyed an unbroken run. Alongside him in the cast that year in Dudley Stevens’s production were villain David Leonard and comic stooge Martin Barrass, his regular partners in panto to this day.