She’s Behind You
★★★★★ Utter joy
Traverse (Venue 15): Fri 25 Jul – Sun 24 Aug 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
Let’s just get this out of the way at the start. Johnny McKnight’s She’s Behind You at the Traverse is just brilliant.
Funny, sad, personal and involving, it’s all you think it might be – and a whole lot more besides.
Johnny McKnight (Dorothy Blawna-Gale) in She’s Behind You. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
McKnight has, of course, written more than thirty pantos and played eighteen dames (as well as having huge experience in other, less important theatrical genres). Here, he is the writer and performer of this peek at panto, appearing as one of his most celebrated creations, Dorothy Blawna-Gale from The Wizard of Oz.
punch up, not down
But Dorothy is Johnny, and Johnny is Dorothy. And you don’t just see panto, panto sees you. Or at any rate, that’s how it should be, Dorothy/Johnny tells us. Panto should punch up, not down, and it should include, not exclude.
Put aside any doubts you may have when you read that this was originally a Cameron Lecture from Glasgow University and the Conservatoire. While there’s certainly a great deal of education to be had, there’s nothing dry about this subtly tweaked version from the Traverse and the National Theatre of Scotland.
Johnny McKnight (Dorothy Blawna-Gale) in She’s Behind You. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
It’s partly a genuine slice of panto in August, with topical songs, near-the-knuckle jokes and audience participation (baldie men, sit near the front at your peril). And McKnight is simply fantastic at it, working the crowd magnificently.
Yet it’s also so much more. It’s the story of McKnight’s journey, and panto’s journey, over the last two decades. A genre that always combined rigorous rules with anarchic freedom – the jazz of theatre, if you will – had become somewhat hidebound and archaic, as performers sought to copy their illustrious forebears without taking account of changing times.
identity and acceptance
It’s a tale of growth and change, of identity and acceptance, of sadness and joy. It’s deeply personal, utterly heartfelt (and occasionally filthy).
Johnny McKnight (Dorothy Blawna-Gale) in She’s Behind You. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
John Tiffany’s direction, meanwhile, means that this is as poised and assured a piece of theatre as you could wish for – a beautifully constructed piece of storytelling that involves the audience completely (on occasion at very close quarters).
Kenny Miller’s design, Grant Anderson’s lighting and Ross Brown’s sound design are all spot on. The lighting with its star shape, is particularly apt. Because McKnight is a genuine panto ‘star’, and it’s surely time he was elevated to full-blown national treasure status.
If you have any interest in panto, go and see it. More importantly, if you think you don’t like panto, you have to go and see it, as you might just find your preconceptions overturned.
Running time: One hour and 15 minutes (no interval)
Traverse Theatre (Trav 1), 10 Cambridge St, EH1 2ED. (Venue 15).
Fri 25 July (preview), Sun 3 – Sun 24 August 2025
Sun 3 – Sun 10 (Not Mon): 9.30pm; Tue 12 – Sun 24: 9.45pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Traverse website: Further details.
National Theatre of Scotland website.
Johnny McKnight (Dorothy Blawna-Gale) in She’s Behind You. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
ENDS
