IT WOULD be no surprise to learn if Clare Waugh has had to apply bruise cream to her right thigh on a regular basis.

Set to appear in Oran Mor’s latest panto The Princess and the Pie, the actress reveals this is in fact her tenth panto playing Principal Boy.

“I love playing a boy,” she says, smiling. “Although I think girls playing Principal Boys are a dying breed it’s what I was brought up on.

“It’s great for a woman to have all the fun and I can remember seeing Dick Whittington when I was young and wanting to play him.

“Thankfully, a few years ago I was able to play Dick.”

Former RSAMD student Clare says the Principal Boy role is not just about ‘something for the dads to look at, referencing the traditional costume of fish net tights and above-the-knee boots.

“It’s about empowerment,” she says. “It enables women to have the main parts and to have fun.”

The actress grew up with three older brothers.

“I was a bit of a tomboy and so playing a man comes naturally to me,” she says, smiling.

“But I’ve also played lots of men in straight plays. For example I was the German Major Strasser in Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut and I was also (film director) Michael Curtiz.

“And I played a man in the Hank Williams story.”

This year’s Oran Mor panto, written by Morag Fullerton, sees Clare play Prince Angus, who is royal – but skint and has to marry a Princess who is rich in order to keep the money supply flowing.

“Angus’s mother the Queen Jockina wants him to marry a Princess but he wants to marry a commoner. And the pie test comes into it because that’s the rest of a true Princess.”

Clare adds; “There is a lot of pie tasting, and the usual madcap jokes.”

And of course it’s a modern morality tale; “It looks at the royals and commoners and the whole notion of love. It’s a story with a happy ending. And there are some good songs thrown into the mix as well.”

Clare has acted from an early age, but she has a natural comedy bent, encouraged by watching the likes of Victoria Wood on television.

“I love comedy,” she says, “and I think I’ve always gravitated towards it. When it works it feels like a piece of music, all based on timing and delivery.”

Clare, who “comes from a ceilidh family,” certainly understands music. She plays piano, guitar, double bass, violin, ukulele . . . in fact there aren’t many instruments she can’t turn her hand to, which certainly helps when going up for auditions.

“I hardly seem to go into a show these days without playing a new instrument. I was in Para Handy recently and I had to play the harmonium.”

Clare’s parents took the family to panto from a young age. “It’s most children’s introduction to theatre, and it’s fantastic for them.

And now she’s back in pantoland – her fourteenth in total and loving it. But appearing at Oran Mor alongside George Drennan, Steven McNicoll and Frances Thorburn, offers added fun, particularly because the basement theatre caters for “grown up children”.

“You can get away with so much,” she says, grinning. “I once appeared in Jack and the Beanstalk at Oran Mor and was taught to climb the beanstalk by a pole dancer.”

Clare has no problem milking comedy for all it’s worth. “No, I don’t have a problem looking silly,” she says. “In fact, I love it.

Clare admits the gender confusion can produce big laughs; sometimes kids can take a little time to grasp what’s going on when men play Dames and women play young Princes.

“I appeared in Sleeping Beauty once as Principal Boy and found myself on stage, slapping my thigh and saying ‘I will protect you, my Princess!’ - and a wee boy in the audience called out ‘You couldnae protect a flea.’”

That sort of confusion won’t emerge at Oran Mor. All Clare will have to worry about is sore thighs.

“I can already feel them becoming a bit tender,” she says, touching her leg and grinning.

• The Princess and the Pie, Oran Mor, November 28 – December 23, Mondays to Saturdays.