Trump, Salmond villains in pantomimes

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Donald Trump, star of "The Apprentice" on U.S. television, is playing another part in Scotland this year as a villain in a Christmas pantomime.

At the Aberdeen Arts Center this year, the pantomime is Robin Hood, with Trump (played by an actor) transformed into the Sheriff of Nottingham, who is plotting to convert Sherwood Forest into a golf course. Trump recently got approval for his plans for a luxury golf resort on the east coast of Scotland not far from Aberdeen.

Trump is not the only real-life figure to give a pantomime political edge.

Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister and head of the Scottish National Party, becomes "Alexander Salamander" in "Mother Bruce" at Glasgow's Tron Theater.

Larry the Leprechaun, a garden gnome, is a stand-in for Salmond's spin doctors.

"Politicians have only really made it once they get mentioned in panto or parodied in radio satire shows, so we are paying him a compliment," said Gordon Dougall, director of "Mother Bruce."

At the Whitehall Theater in Dundee, the pantomime takes on the bankruptcy of Woolworths, the British spin-off of the U.S five and dime. Jack -- as in Jack and the Beanstalk -- decides to buy Woolworths after he acquires 5,000 gold pieces. That leaves him unsure how to spend the rest of the money.