The Christmas holidays have always been a season for pantomime and this year has proved no exception.

But the traditional panto villain that tries to thwart everything has this year been replaced with a more sinister character: Covid-19 (cue the boos)!

Spontaneous Productions, (cue the cheers), has rehearsed hard over the past month to produce another superb pantomime for the festive season.

Jack and the Beanstalk began its nine-date run at the Savoy Theatre with two pre-Christmas shows.

The first week was a roaring success: Schoolchildren could be heard cheering and booing along Church Street as the Savoy Youth Theatre joined with traditional superstar Kevin Tillett and West End star Robert Traynor and a cast of professionals to welcome them into the land of pantomime.

But new Welsh Government rules that came into force on Boxing Day required two-metre social distancing and an upper limit of 30 for indoor events, which in turn saw theatres all over Wales cancelling pantomimes and Christmas shows following the fresh curbs on audiences

Spontaneous Productions and the Savoy Theatre met three days before Christmas and decided that the only way that they could follow the new rules, and socially distance the audiences to keep them safe, was to offer extra 11am shows.

With this decision, Samantha Densham, producer of ’Jack and the Beanstalk’, contacted the actors and crew to ask if they were happy with this arrangement. And it was a resounding ’yes, the show must go on’ from them all and everyone unanimously agreed to go for three shows a day.

"I never thought I would see the day when I had to say, ’our audiences are too big’," said producer Sam.

"But we all agreed, from actors to technicians, we have worked too hard, and care too much about the work we do, to be beaten by this virus.

"So we are going above and beyond to make sure we can keep the magic alive, keep the theatre alive and keep our audiences safe," she added.

Chris Ryde, director of the Monmouth Savoy Trust and general manager at the Savoy frantically re-arranged the seating plan to ensure adequate social distancing and if you already have tickets you do not need to do anything, the theatre will be in touch to confirm or rearrange your seats.

For any shows that are currently over the new audience capacity, ticket holders will be offered a new seat or space in another show on the same day.

"Please give the theatre time to work their way through arranging this - they are working super-hard to let people know as soon as they can," added Sam.

"If you haven’t got your tickets yet, don’t panic, we are working alongside the theatre and some shows do still have space available - particularly the evening shows.

"We are following government guidelines to ensure everyone is kept safe, so please bear with us as we make these changes so we can still go ahead," she added.

In a final twist to the tale, you can now only book tickets by phoning the theatre direct, there are no online bookings! Remaining shows are today (December 29), 11am, 2pm, and 6.30pm: December 30, 31 and January 1, 11am and 2.30pm: January 2, 11am, 2pm and 6.30pm.

"Please wear your masks - present your COVID passes or lateral flow tests, and wash those hands" asks Sam.

"We are all in this together, thank you so much for all the support that our loyal audiences have shown us so far," she said.