"I don't think we've ever looked on Eden Court as a rival. It's a different thing," Maureen Pringle, director of this year's Florians' panto, said.

"With only 97 seats, this is a much more intimate and friendly place, but if you want big effects and an expensive production, you go to Eden Court."

Trevor Nicol, who wrote the script for the current panto "Sleeping Beauty", added that many people would see and enjoy both shows.

"The panto is a great money-spinner for the club and we always try to use original pantos," he said. "I don't think we've ever bought in a panto script."

Nicol wrote the Florians' first original panto when the amateur drama club revived the traditional seasonal entertainment in 1992, but like last year's show "The King's Jewels", The Florians are reviving a past success for their 2008 offering.

"Sleeping Beauty" was first staged 10 years ago, but has been updated with newer songs and more topical jokes, including a reference to that other theatre on the west side of the Ness.

Among those changes is a name change for the show's Dame. As the royal nanny charged with caring for baby Beauty, she was originally called Tiggy Leg-Break, a pun on the name of Tiggy Legge-Bourke, nanny to Princes William and Harry, but with that reference lost on the panto's younger audience members, that has been changed to a more locally resonant name "Bella Drum".

Taking on the role is Johnathan Stuart, making his debut as Dame. Stuart has good cause to remember the original production of "Sleeping Beauty". As one of the first Junior Florians, it was his first ever show with the club.

Also making a return, but to a more familiar role is Caroline Macpherson, who repeats her turn as the hissable villainess Cadavera.

Other members of the original cast are also making a comeback in various roles, though Nicol, who also appeared on stage in 1997, is sitting out this production.

However, there is still plenty of Nicol family interest. His wife Caroline appears as Sonata, one of the fairy godmothers, while son Michael, who at six is too young to have been around at the original performance, is in the chorus. Also appearing is Nicol's brother Nicky, who plays Bella's comic nephew Dicky.

The two brothers teamed up to play the title roles in Neil Simon comedy "The Odd Couple" earlier this year.

Members of the cast at a dress rehearsal for the Florians 'Sleeping Beauty'. Alasdair Allen

Other leading roles in this year's panto include Beauty herself, played by Heather Hastings, and Aileen Hendry as principal boy Prince Marius.

The panto involves the biggest cast of The Florians' show with most club members involved, as well as parents of the younger club members who come along to chaperone their children and end up helping out behind the scenes or even on stage.

The task of marshalling the cast together falls on Pringle, who is directing her first panto and admits she usually prefers drama.

"I think I'm the longest serving member. My first show was in 1966 in the Little Theatre in Farraline Park," she said.

In that time she has seen a number of Florians members go on to professional careers in the theatre, including Jimmy Chisholm, Anne Louise Ross, Barry MacNeill, who has appeared in West End musicals such as "Starlight Express", and John Doyle, who is currently directing shows on Broadway.

The Florians are also looking forward to their 2008 shows, among them a series of one-act plays, including one which featured in the "Big Shop" series of short plays in unusual locations around Inverness, and a new production of John Gay's "Beggar's Opera", to be directed by John Claudius, who also appears in "Sleeping Beauty" as the Lord Chamberlain.

Nicol, who has written five pantos for the company, said The Florians might go back to brand new original pantos in the future. If so he should be better prepared for a positive audience response than his first effort as panto playwright.

"The first time, after the show a lady came backstage and she told me she had enjoyed it so much she was shouting: 'Author! Author!'" Nicol recalled.

"I said to her: 'Is that what you were shouting? I thought you were saying: 'Awful! Awful!','"

* "Sleeping Beauty" runs at The Florians Theatre, Bught Park, from this evening to Saturday 15th December at 7.30pm with matinees on both Saturdays at 2.30pm. There is no Sunday performance.

Tickets are priced at £10 for adults and £5 for under 16s, and are available on The Booth website.

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