Sleeping Beauty runs at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre from 4 December 2026 to 3 January 2027. Laura Main and Andy Collins star, cheapest seats £15.60 today.

This year’s pantomime at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre is Sleeping Beauty, and it runs from Friday 4 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027. That is confirmed on the theatre’s own booking page, run by ATG, which operates the Waterside.

Tickets are on sale now.

Who is in it

The cast on the theatre’s booking page:

  • Laura Main as Fairy Snowfall. She played Shelagh Turner in Call the Midwife.
  • Andy Collins as Lester the Jester, back again. He is a Bucks radio presenter and the closest thing the Waterside panto has to a fixture.
  • Leon Craig as Nanny Nora, the dame, in his third year at the Waterside.
  • David Ribi as Prince Vincent.
  • Jordan Lee Davies as Carabosse.

What it costs

Panto pricing at the Waterside moves by performance, so there is no single answer. What we can tell you is what the theatre’s own booking data showed on 5 September 2026, which is the first week the run went on general sale:

Performance Cheapest seat on sale
Fri 4 Dec, 7pm (opening night) £19.76
Sat 5 Dec, 2.30pm and 7pm £19.76
Sun 6 Dec, 1pm and 5.30pm £19.76
Tue 8 Dec, 10.30am £15.60
Tue 8 Dec, 7pm £18.20
Wed 9 Dec, 10.30am £15.60
Wed 9 Dec, 6pm £18.20

The pattern is the one you would expect and it is worth knowing before you book: weekday morning schools performances are the cheapest seats in the run, and the opening weekend is the most expensive part of the early period. Those prices are the lowest band available on that date at the time we looked, they do not include ATG’s booking fee, and they will change as seats sell.

Later December dates, the Christmas week and the New Year performances were not carrying published lead-in prices when we checked. Expect them to be higher than the December weekday mornings.

The thing to know before you sit down

The theatre’s own page carries a warning that is easy to miss when you book: there is a live water fight in Act 2, and it asks audiences to “come prepared with coats and umbrellas”. If you are sitting in the stalls with small children in good clothes, take that literally.

Accessible performances

ATG says audio described, captioned, BSL interpreted and relaxed performances are part of the run and are flagged on the booking calendar. No dates for them had been published when we checked on 5 September. They usually land later in the autumn, and they sell out first, so it is worth checking back in October rather than in December.

The town’s other two pantos, at £12

The Waterside is not the only panto in Aylesbury, and if the dates or the prices do not work, there are two more inside the town. Both are at Queens Park Arts Centre and the Limelight Theatre, Queens Park, HP21 7RT, both written by Dario Knight and produced by the centre’s in-house company Unbound with SDSD, and both run about two hours including a 20 minute interval.

  • Alice in Wonderland, on 12, 13 and 19 December. Matinees 1pm to 3.30pm, early evening shows 5.30pm to 8pm. Directed by Andrew Faber.
  • Treasure Island, on 20, 26, 27 and 28 December. Matinees 1pm to 3.30pm on all four dates, plus 5.30pm to 8pm evening performances on 20 and 27 December. Directed by Erika Sanderson.

Tickets for both are £12 each after 1 November, with early bird discounts before that, according to the listings on Aylesbury Town Council’s events calendar. Access details, signed performances and quiet spaces are on the Queens Park Arts box office pages for each show.

Two practical differences worth weighing. The Limelight is a small venue, so sightlines are close and the noise level is lower than a 1,200 seat main house, which suits younger or noise-sensitive children. And a family of four at £12 a head comes to £48, against £62.40 to £79.04 for the same four at the Waterside on the cheapest seats above, before booking fees.

Getting there and parking

The Waterside is on Exchange Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UG, next to the canal basin, about five minutes’ walk from Market Square and the bus station.

The Exchange Street car park is the closest, with Waterside North and the Friars Square multi-storey both a short walk away. Our Aylesbury parking page has the tariffs and the Blue Badge position, and the roadworks and travel page has anything live on the routes in.

One date to watch: Sunday 22 November, when Christmas on the Cobbles closes Market Square and Kingsbury. That is before the panto opens, but the panto cast traditionally appear in the illuminated parade, so the two events are linked. Details on our Christmas lights switch-on page.

Sources

Checked 5 September 2026. Prices move, so treat the table as a snapshot rather than a quote. We will update this page when the access performance dates are published.