Local actor Daniel makes a great Baddie in Aladdin

Actor Daniel Page is loving being on stage at Exeter Corn Exchange and being hissed, booed and generally hated this Christmas, which isn’t the usual thing that professional actors hope for but in this case it’s perfectly normal as he plays Abanazer, the scheming and plotting baddie in Aladdin which runs from 15th December to 6th January.

Daniel has been all over the country as an actor and performer, but his first pantomime took place right here in Exeter. He says:

“I have only done one other professional panto before and that was last Christmas playing Friar Tuck in Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood in Chesterfield. The only one before that was Babes in Wonford Wood about 20 years ago here in Exeter!”

He’s fully prepared for his role as Abanazer.

“Being funny and nasty at the same time is a hard one,” he says. “But the key is that everyone loves a villain. Also having a good balance in the script and the performance between being mean and then getting what’s coming to you also makes the audience laugh and respond to you. If you’re being booed you know you’re half way to getting it right.”

Daniel was in the company for the stage musical version of Billy Elliot from 2004-2008. He was in the original cast and opened in the show in May 2005 at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London. He returned again for 6 months in 2010, appearing in all in over 1500 performances with some of those playing the role of Mr Braithwaite.

Like other members of the Aladdin cast Daniel clearly has lots of West End experience. He says: “Other than playing the role of Mr Braithwaite, having to tap and skip at the same time in a dance routine with Billy and Mrs Wilkinson, my favourite role has been playing the role of Fagin in Oliver at the Theatre Royal in Windsor. A dream role and generally only played by “names”, so it was a role I thought I would never play.”

It all started for Daniel when an announcement was made in school assembly at St. Peters that the amateur company Quest needed more boys for a production of Annie Get Your Gun at the Barnfield.

“Having done school productions at Whipton Barton and St. Peters I thought I would have a go,” says Daniel. “That was the first of many shows in Exeter and because I got involved in so many groups I had to make a choice between swimming for Exeter and Devon and the ambition of swimming for the national team or carrying on in acting and going to drama school and fulfilling my new ambition of acting in the West End. I chose the drama school route. I still swim, so maybe a comeback for the 2016 Olympics! “

As much as anything, with such fond memories of Exeter, Daniel is very pleased to be back in the city for Christmas. He says:

“I haven’t had much time to get about Exeter but it has changed in 20 years and the new Princesshay is a very pleasant surprise. I have managed to go around the Christmas market on the Cathedral green, and I hope that's a regular feature for Christmas. But the best location in Exeter is being at home with mum and dad.”

You can see Daniel as Abanazer in Aladdin at Exeter Corn Exchange alongside Exeter’s favourite dame Steve Bennett and a company rich in West End theatre experience from 15th December to 6th January. Tickets are available by calling 01392 665938 and online at http://www.exeter.gov.uk/cornexchange