When the Mercury Theatre decided to use puppets in this year’s pantomime they didn’t have to go very far to find an expert.

That’s because they had their very own in Abi Bing.

For the last couple of years, Abi has been working with the Colchester theatre’s community groups including Act V, aimed at those aged over 50, and a number of its Youth Theatre troupes, teaching them how to work with puppets.

Now she’s had the highest accolade of all, being asked to take on the roll of puppet consultant for the Mercury’s pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

“It was quite a big secret,” she reveals, “and I was told to keep it under my hat, although when I told some of my friends I was working on the pantomime, they all said ‘Oh there must be puppets in it then’.

“I’m still blown away that I was given the honour of working on such an important show. It’s such a big thing, it’s a real privilege to be asked to be involved.”

Originally from Northampton, Abi moved to the area back in 2012 to study drama at Essex University.

“At the time I was torn between drama and art college,” she tells me. “I looked at all kinds of courses, including stage design but performing is what I really enjoyed doing and that’s why I went for drama in the end.

“In the end it became the perfect combination of the craft side that I loved and being on stage.”

That was mainly because as part of her degree course she got the option of doing an independent practical project.

“In my first year,” she continues, “I remember going to see a show at the Lakeside by Les Enfants Terrible called The Trench, which included awesome puppets. I only really went along because one of my friends had worked with them before, up in Edinburgh handing out flyers for them, and she said they were brilliant.

“I loved it and straight away I wanted to know how I could work with puppets. Then I discovered I could do this independent practical project and asked whether it could be on puppeteering.”

Except it very nearly didn’t happen.

“I just got really terrified about the whole thing,” Abi says, “that I couldn’t possibly do everything that I wanted to do it justice and what was I thinking picking puppeteering. I was going to e-mail one of my supervisors that I had made a mistake but I had already lined-up a two day puppet workshop with Jimmy Grimes, who was the puppeteer on War Horse, so I went and that kind of changed everything.

“It was on a certain form of Japanese puppetry called Bunraku and afterwards I knew this is definitely what I wanted to do. It was a real life saviour.”

After graduating from Essex, Abi got a job with a school in Woodbridge, Suffolk, where she worked on a show that was then taken up to Edinburgh.

“That really set me up,” she says. “To have that opportunity straight after leaving university was brilliant for me. Before I had all these ideas but not the finances to back it up and there I got to build 15 different puppets which I then used to teach the schoolchildren.

“The same year I went up with my own show to Edinburgh, The Intriguing Imagination of Arla Bell, which was an incredible experience in itself.”

With still two weeks to go, including the Mercury’s first ever Adult Panto Night on January 10, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has been one of the most successful productions the Colchester theatre has ever put on.

As well as the puppets, the show features another great performance from Dame Antony Stuart-Hicks and his trusty accomplice in mirth Dale Superville plus an absolute barnstorming turn by Colchester’s Carli Norris. Not to forget the excellent junior chorus who sing, dance and act as puppeteers.

Abi says: “They’re all pretty amazing in the panto and I’m pleased to say also picked up the puppeteering really quickly.

“The junior chorus were particularly impressive. I mean not only do they sing, act and dance but they can now do puppeteering as well.

“I did a few sessions with the whole cast and for the last one I got to sit in on a particular scene with the director, Daniel Buckroyd, which meant I could offer up advice on how the puppets might be used. That was so much fun.”

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs continues at the Mercury Theatre, Balkerne Gate, Colchester, until January 14. It’s on at various times with tickets priced from£28 to £11.50 plus discounts. They are available from the box office on 01206 573948 or on-line at mercurytheatre.co.uk