Later on I look down from about 20 feet up, balancing on a floor of very thin wood.

And I have to pick up ponies from a pub and then trot them quite quickly through a stage door so they don’t get wet in the rain.

Surreal as this may sound, it’s an average day for a stage-hand working on the pantomime Cinderella at the Kings Theatre in Southsea.

When it comes to Christmas productions, you think of the big name actors and the famous fairy tales, not the people hidden away in the dark who bring it all together.

Long, centre, short, cans, ques, browline, rope, rake; all names that come second nature to the pros. But to a complete novice helping for one day’s matinee, it might as well be another language.

A theatre technician’s job is nothing if not varied. Facing several large sections of wood that make up the backdrop to the Prince’s palace, I was instantly given a ratchet to unscrew the different pieces, before a gang of people slowly separated the display and put it safely in its various corners of the backstage area.

Shortly afterwards I was sent up into the rafters to help with the flies. After clambering up some slightly wobbly-looking stairs and walking across a platform which sat about 20 feet above the stage, I had to help lift the giant clothes that provide colourful backdrops for the audience... and protection from curious eyes during scene changes for the crew.

Now this may seem easy with the press of a button, but any unnecessary noise in a theatre simply can’t happen, and they’re all lifted through pure manpower and a very big rope.

With three people pulling on one rope at a time, it looks more like a scene from the 1800s, not the 21st century of smartphones and iPads.