She's an icon in her own right, but panto in the Grand Opera House just wouldn't be the same without May McFettridge.
This year the main woman is marking an incredible 30 years as the star of the show at the annual Christmas spectacular in the iconic city centre venue, before it shuts its doors for ten months for refurbishments.
Reflecting on her three decades as Panto Dame, May told of her excitement at taking on a new show this year.
"We've never done it [Beauty and the Beast] before here we've done Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk and so many other pantos we've done three or four times so this one is new to us as well. Now we do obviously know the way the storyline goes but you don't know the spectacular things that Qdos [the panto producers] will bring in.
"There could be anything, a flying saucer or anything you never know what to expect."
But 30 years at the star of the show can come at a price, and May has been through it all, the blood, sweat and the tears.
She told Belfast Live: "I remember the year that Cannon and Ball did the show, I can't remember what production it was but in one of the scenes we had two chutes that used to throw crockery down, so the plates would be sliding down and you had to catch them and put them on the table.
"Obviously Cannon and Ball worked it a treat but then I was to do it, so I was at the wrong shoot so 5 or 6 plates came down the other chute and smashed, and these plates weren't glazed so they were very brittle.
"So eventually I got these five or six plates and as I was walking over the tarpaulin that was on the stage to protect it and there was a wee tear in it and I put my toe in it and fell and smashed my head off the six plates, they just disintegrated as my head hit it."
She continued:"My eyebrow split open and the blood poured out of it, I mean poured out of it and the blood was down one side of my face and I looked and Tommy Cannon was at one side and Bobby Ball was at the other side and they were on their knees and the tears were tripping them with laughter.
"I just stood up and I said, 'I have shed blood for this production', I had to go off stage and get it cleaned up and get neat seals put into it to stop it and then vaseline on top and makeup on top of that, and I got back on sort of staggering, it was very, very funny.
"So blood, tears, bruises, I've had it all."
But regardless of the injuries May says the show must go on, even if there are some days you're just not feeling the best.
"It's hard old graft, people sort of say, 'ach sure you're only on for a couple of hours' but you have to learn what to do for those two and a half or three hours that you're in the show and sometimes twice a day with a matinée and sometimes you're sick and not well but the show must go on and you have to get through it.
"If a dancer gets hurt that's fine you can rearrange dancers but if a principal character gets sick you just have to grin and bear it."
Always full of fun and surprises, May said audiences this year can expect the same treatment, so if you're in the front row, you better watch out.
"I remember one year we were doing Mother Goose and I was elevated, they were making me disappear, so I went up, up, up and the next thing they pull the sheets away and I get down and I'm in the front row, and the people in the front gasp, and I sat down beside this wee woman, and said, 'alright love hows it going?' the poor wee woman nearly had a heart attack she didn't know where I'd come from.
"So if you're in the front row, be prepared for anything."
Beauty and the Beast runs at the Grand Opera House from 30 November 2019 – 12 January 2020. Tickets are available via the website.
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