Fictional Characters in Panto: Talli Roland casts Snow White

When I contacted authors to take part in this Fictional Characters in Panto feature, Talli Roland was one of the first to say yes despite having never watched a panto.

I love writing over-the-top characters, so when it came time to cast my characters in a pantomime, I had no trouble. My first novel, The Hating Game, is a tongue-in-cheek take on reality television featuring very vivid individuals. 

With the evil, sausage-scarfing producer Silver, the ballsy female protagonist Mattie who’s locked away her love, and the dodgy group of men she’s meant to be dating on the TV show, one play sprang to mind: Snow White. Okay, so Snow White is rather passive while Mattie is the opposite, but they do meet their prince at the end – after many trials and tribulations.

Silver fits nicely into the role of the wicked Queen, who’s willing to do anything and everything to get her way. And the men Mattie is forced to date on the reality show could definitely play the parts of the seven dwarfs, from the bumbling to the grumpy. In order to survive, Snow White is forced to take on a role she’s not used to, and the same is true for Mattie: if she wants to save her business, she needs to embrace her role on reality television.

Both women undergo a journey of awakening – one quite literally – and are even stronger and happier because of it.

For Mattie Johns, reality TV just got a little too real. 

When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she has perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy. 

After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £200,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. 

Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?