A SCHOOLGIRL from Wallyford has been crowned the winner of a new deep-sea pantomime competition run by The Brunton in Musselburgh and the town’s East Coast restaurant.

Lucy McGillivray, 11, a pupil at Wallyford Primary School, wowed the judges with her colourful painting with a nautical twist.

Last month, she joined children from across Edinburgh and the Lothians to make a creative splash and painted a colourful picture of her favourite deep-sea creatures as part of The Brunton’s new festive show for 2022 Sinbad the Pantomime.

Taking inspiration from the story of Sinbad, Lucy created an eye-catching picture of a starfish, crab and fishes getting married beneath the deep blue sea, including the humorous caption: “You may now plaice the ring on the... fish finger!”

As part of her prize, Lucy’s winning creation will now be displayed to the public at The Brunton in Musselburgh until December 31 and her family will also receive a complimentary VIP family ticket to see the panto, as well as a complimentary pre-theatre family meal at East Coast on North High Street.

Lucy said: "It took me a few days to come up with the perfect deep-sea idea for my picture.

'So happy'

"Once I had the idea, I had so much fun painting it.

"I was so happy and surprised I won the competition and can’t wait to go for dinner at East Coast and see the panto at The Brunton."

Families can now look forward to seeing Sinbad’s voyages from Fisherrow Harbour and over the sea, searching for fortune and finding romance with a runaway princess-in-disguise. Along the way there will be nail-biting drama, dastardly pirates, riding on the back of a giant whale and ferocious deep-sea creatures guarding hidden treasure.

Michael Stitt, chair of Brunton Theatre Trust, said: "We were really impressed by Lucy’s creative flair, which managed to capture the festive spirit of our deep-sea pantomime competition with colour and humour.

"The quality of all the entries was great to see and we’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to enter."

East Coast is owned by Carlo and Katia Crolla and was crowned the ‘Best Seafood Establishment’ in Scotland at the Food Awards Scotland 2022.

Special guests

Mr Crolla said: "As an independent, family-run restaurant, we’re proud to be supporting our local community theatre and working together as part of this competition for children across the Lothians in the run-up to the festive pantomime season.

"We look forward to welcoming Lucy and her family to East Coast as our special VIP guests."

Sinbad the Pantomime is a new production produced by The Brunton, written and directed by award-winning professional writer and theatre maker John Binnie. His writing and directing is popular with Brunton audiences following Jack and the Beanstalk in 2018, Cinderella in 2019, Rapunzel the Pantomime family film in 2020, and back on stage with Hansel and Gretel the Pantomime in 2021.

The pantomime creative team includes set and costume designer Robin Mitchell, musical director Tommie Travers and Amy Robinson as choreographer. The costumes are made by students of BA (Hons) costume design and construction at Musselburgh-based Queen Margaret University.

Tickets for Sinbad the Pantomime are available to purchase from The Brunton at thebrunton.co.uk or by calling 0131 653 5245.