Two weeks ago, Irish Country Living braced itself for a panto. Sitting behind two rows of mustard-and-brown-clad brownies, while toddlers screamed from the balcony above, the panto itself opened in a way that can only be described as loud, and we wondered if we’d come out of this thing with our sanity intact. But five minutes in, we were high on panto glee.

Come’Ere is the village clown, Lola is the token panto dame, Tickles, the jester, thinks he’s a gesture and Fairy Sally is barking mad. Then there’s King Seymour who is that embarrassing dad.

He speaks with a D4 accent, employing phrases like “guys” and “let’s party”, he spontaneously busts a move to Macklemore, and he can’t move on from that “epic” New Year’s Eve party he threw in 1983.

Count CombOver, pronounced “Come-Oh-verrrre”, has a complex similar to that of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ Hyacinth, “The Boo-kaaaaaay Residence” Bucket. He enjoys being a count, twirling around dramatically so that his cape flaps behind him and he is determined to fulfil Mummy’s prophesy that he should become King of Merryland.

In the middle of all this madness is Harry Smiles (Mondo from Fair City), an ordinary Merryland citizen who falls hopelessly in love with the beautiful Princess Aurora.

Apparently, the three magic ingredients of a panto are fun, a love story and magic. So Claire Tighe, the Sleeping Beauty producer, tells us.

“Kids are our biggest critics. If you hit the core and key things, you can play with it outside of that and make it more current.” Current it certainly is. Jump On It made the cut, the cat from Love/Hate was killed all over again and The Fox - What Does the Fox Say? (an electronic dance song which has a whopping 260 million hits on YouTube) also features. At the end of the show, the audience are made learn the moves to What Does the Fox Say? threatened with being dragged on stage with the jester and the Village Clown upon refusal.

In the middle of all this, the cast suddenly break into a rendition of Les Miserables’ Can you Hear the People Sing?

This draws the first half to a close as the citizens of Merryland thunder and boom about, joining the fight for the right to rid the kingdom of spinning wheels. This is to ensure Princess Aurora doesn’t prick her finger on the spinning wheel and die, as per the spell cast on her by Count CombOver’s mother Aunt Jealousy.

In the Tighe family, pantos really are a family affair. Claire’s mother Rita was a founding member of the local musical society in Leixlip, and Claire and was on stage from the age of six. Aged 16, her dance teacher suggested she take over her dance class – but Claire never thought she’d make a living out of it.

She has been self-employed since the age of 21. Claire runs Theatreworks Stage School, which employs two full-time and two part-time teachers, and trains 350 young dancers, singers and actors across four schools. Claire’s parents are still involved in her stage endeavours today.

“My parents, Brian and Rita, are so supportive. Mam looks after the costumes. They get as much of a buzz out of it as I do.”

And the family tradition is set to continue. Claire is about to give birth to a real-life panto baby – this year’s panto kicked off on 1 December and Claire was due to give birth on 8 December. Will the baby be a panto star?

“It bloody better be,” she exclaims, but quickly backtracks and lessens the charge to the expectation that it should have an “innate grá” for pantos at least.

There is great rivalry on the underground panto scene. The Olympia panto is written by Claire’s cousins, Ian and Ross, yet Ian is performing in the Helix. And the director and co-writer of Sleeping Beauty is Karl Harpur, a childhood friend of Claire’s who lives in LA but comes home for panto season. However, he doesn’t just help Claire in the Helix, he also wrote this year’s Aladdin in University Concert Hall Limerick, a panto which, incidentally, also stars panto stalwart Twink.

Claire describes The Sleeping Beauty as a traditional family-friendly panto.

“It’s loads of fun and loads of heart. It’s nothing too adult, nothing too cringe worthy and nothing too risqué. Granny won’t be too embarrassed beside her son-in-law.

“The Helix relies on me to get it right. It’s a privilege for me to be entrusted with it.”

Irish Country Living thinks Claire’s done a fantastic job. The closing number was One Direction’s Best Song Ever – a fitting end to what was the best panto ever.

The Sleeping Beauty runs from 29 November until 12 January in DCU’s The Helix Theatre. Family tickets start from €69. Call 01-700-7000. CL