Peter Roberts has a secret for playing panto Dames – don't fight the silliness.

It's a policy the experienced panto player adheres to in his current assignment, the infamous Widow Twankey – one of the best known of all Dame roles – in the Fraser Valley Gilbert and Sullivan Society's production of Aladdin.

"Life's too short to be too serious," says Peter, who retired several years ago from his job as a machine-shop technician for the chemical and biological laboratories at UBC.

As a native Briton, he knows full well that the Dame role in traditional panto – originally a broad burlesque on the women, of sometimes dubious qualifications, who taught elementary school out of their own homes – is mostly about

satirizing human vanity and pomposity and having fun with hideously coloured, violently-mismatched parodies of female clothing.

It's certainly not a case for method acting, he agrees.

"(In Canadian pantomimes) actors are often struggling with the idea of doing it as a woman," he says.

"You have to let it go – you don't fight it or try to think too hard about it."

His instruction from this pantomime's artistic directors – the highly creative team of Mike Balser and Cathy Wilmot – has been to take the role as far over the top as possible.

"They've said, 'you go as far as you possibly can, and we'll tell you if you have to rein it in,' " he notes.

It may be a surprise to anyone who has seen him in violent red wig and hoop skirts for some of his other Dame roles, but Peter admits to an ongoing battle with stage fright, and said he has surprised himself with his ability to throw himself into such theatrical extremity.

But anyone who has met the Midlands-born performer – a regular with the society since his first FVGSS show, The Grand Old Duke of York, in 1992 – knows a cheeky quip is never too far from his lips.

"I'm not that surprised," says his wife, Chris, who appears in a chorus role in Aladdin, continuing a tradition in which they often share the stage in the society's shows.

"He's always like this – that's why he's good at being the Dame."

"I'm always joking and practical joking," he admits.

It was actually Chris' late mother who – well aware of his larking nature – suggested he audition for his first show with the society.

And Peter has discovered latterly that a show-biz gene runs in his family – his maternal grandparents were both performers, he in pantomimes, and she as a dancer.

It was while Peter was firmly behind the scenes – as a stage electrician – that he met Chris, a classically-trained dancer, at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton in the mid-'60s.

"I was a pretty miserable child – I didn't use to smile much," Chris remembers.

"And then one day I heard a girl at school was taking dance lessons, and I asked if I could take them, too.

"After that I really did blossom."

By the time they met, Chris had a great deal of experience being in the spotlight as a member of the London-based Harlequin Ballet company, which frequently toured England, Scotland Ireland and Wales, and was often called on to boost the chorus or provide a corps de ballet for larger shows.

"Chris took one look at me and the rest was history," Peter says, with a typical twinkle in his eye.

"Actually she went back to London. Then I went down there and tried to get some more backstage work in theatres."

A good gig, working at the famed Talk Of The Town, was scotched when Peter could not get into the union – which decided him on a career as a machinist.

But his stay down south did kindle the beginnings of his current role.

"Chris was in a panto at Croydon, and I remember seeing the lead comic, Frankie Murray, as the dame – I always thought that would be a fun thing to do," he said.

And it was Chris' dancing that paid for them to come to Canada in 1969 – when she was cast as music hall dancer in the Billy Wilder film, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, shot at Pinewood Studios.

"Chris made more money in a week there than I made in months," Peter notes.

The move to Canada was encouraged by stories Chris had heard about lots of opportunities for dancers here – but when they arrived she discovered that outside of the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the dance scene was more talk than action.

"When we came to Canada, dancing fell to the wayside," Chris recalls.

The birth and raising of their twins, David and Amy, also intervened, she acknowledges, but the Roberts' involvement with the FVGSS rekindled her desire to perform, as well as working on costumes, and building props – another aspect of theatre she enjoys as much as her husband.

And, just as Peter has discovered his ability to play the Dame, Chris has developed an increasing interest in character parts, including her appearances in FVGSS side projects, such as the Aunt Martha's Funeral fundraiser, in which she played the perpetually gloomy Joy, and the society's Cloverdale Rodeo show, in which she has come into her own as Chester, the sheriff.

"Being on stage is an escape for me," she says.

Meanwhile, Peter admits there are still moments when he thinks about quitting performing.

"I'm sometimes standing on the side of the stage, waiting to go on, and I think 'why am I doing this?' " he says.

"But if I'm not in a show I miss it."

"I think we pace each other well," Chris says.

• Aladdin runs Nov. 25 to Dec. 6 at the Surrey Arts Centre, 13750 88 Ave. For tickets, call 604-501-5566 or check www.arts.surrey.ca; for more information, visit www.fvgss.org.

Audience members are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item to the arts centre during the run of the production for donation to the Surrey Food Bank.