Sarah A. Nixon & Mark Chatterton
Sarah A Nixon and Mark Chatterton are the writing team behind the Liverpool Everyman Theatre’s perennial hit rock ‘n’ roll pantomime. They began their panto career with Cinderella for Oldham Coliseum, which broke all box office records and saved the theatre from closure. Since then, they have written hilarious, high-energy, modern and traditional pantomimes for The Everyman, Derby Playhouse, Wakefield Theatre Royal, Stratford East Theatre Royal and others. Sleeping Beauty at the Everyman in 2019 was the theatre’s biggest success yet and joined a long list of hits such as Rapunzel; Hairway to Heaven!; Dick Whittington: Great Balls of Fur!; Sleeping Cutie: Wake Up Little Snoozy! and Mother Goose: Rock Around the Cluck!
Alongside their pantomime titles, Sarah and Mark’s other work includes Ham for Derby Playhouse; Red, The Wolf Slayer for Central School of Speech & Drama; The Show Must Go On! which premiered in May 2021 at The Bombed Out Church in Liverpool and will tour in 2022; plus a number of award-winning short films for corporate clients. Current projects include Rocked-Up Musketeers, All for One and Three for Two! – an anarchic musical version of the Dumas classic – and an expanded version of Ham, a dark musical comedy that does for butchers what Sweeney Todd did for barbers.
Reviews of their work:
“An excellent sparkling script which is clean as a whistle, packed with daft jokes, magic and a beautiful original take on the story. It also manages what few Cinderella scripts aren’t prepared to risk properly these days, plenty of heart tugging pathos." Manchester Evening News
“Nixon and Chatterton's ability to entertain on two levels and have a room full of hundreds of kids and adults both dying of laughter is a testament to their remarkable power as writers.” Sound and Vision
“Stalwarts of rock n roll panto for more than a decade, they manage to pitch it perfectly. All I can say is wow." The Echo
"And that's the point of a Nixon/Chatterton panto, it makes its own rules, then breaks them, takes itself to court, gets banged up, escapes again, while other panto's are still shouting “Hello boys and girls!” Chester Record
“They really must be considered the absolute pinnacle of pantomime theatre writing”
“Excellent family entertainment.” The Stage