Pantomime (theatre)
In
Great Britain,
Australia,
Ireland, and
New Zealand pantomime (informally,
panto) refers to a theatrical genre, usually performed around the Christmas and New Year holiday season.
The performance of Pantomime originates at its earliest in ancient Greece, but exploded in popularity during the reign of Augustus in ancient Rome. The style and content of modern panto has very clear and strong links with the
Commedia dell'arte, a form of popular theatre that arose in Italy, in the early middle ages, and which reached England by the 16th century. The
gender role reversal resembles the old festival of
Twelfth Night, a combination of
Epiphany and midwinter feast, when it was customary for the natural order of things to be reversed. This tradition can be traced back to pre-Christian European festivals such as
Samhain and
Saturnalia.In
Restoration England, a pantomime was considered a low form of
opera, rather like the Commedia dell'arte but without
Harlequin (rather like the
French Vaudeville). In
1717,
John Rich introduced Harlequin to the British stage under the name of "Lun" (for "lunatic") and began performing wildly popular pantomimes. These pantomimes gradually became more topical and comic, often involving as many special theatrical effects as possible.
Colley Cibber and his colleagues competed with Rich and produced their own pantomimes, and pantomime was a substantial (if decried) subgenre in
Augustan drama. This form had virtually died out by the end of the
19th century.
Traditionally performed at
Christmas, with family audiences consisting mainly of children and parents,
British pantomime is now a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick,
satire and mild sexual innuendo (but to the innocent everything is pure). Plots are often loosely based on traditional children's stories, the most popular titles being:
Aladdin (sometimes combined with
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves)
Babes in the Wood (often combined with
Robin Hood)
CinderellaDick WhittingtonJack and the BeanstalkMother GoosePuss in BootsSleeping BeautyGoldilocks and the Three BearsSnow WhitePeter PanThe form has a number of conventions.
*The leading male character (the "
principal boy") is played by a young woman.
*An older woman (the
pantomime dame) is played by a man in
drag.
*Risqué
double entendre, often wringing innuendo out of perfectly innocent phrases.
*
Audience participation, including calls of "he's behind you!", and "oh yes it is!" or "oh no it isn't!"
*The
pantomime horse or cow, played by two actors in a single costume, one as the head and front legs, the other as the body and back legs.
Another contemporary panto tradition is the celebrity guest star, a practice that dates back to the late 19th century, when
Augustus Harris, proprietor of the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, hired well-known variety artistes for his pantomimes. Occasionally a pantomime pulls off a coup by engaging a guest star with an unquestionable thespian reputation, as with the
Christmas 2004 production of
Aladdin that featured
Sir Ian McKellen as
Widow Twankey, which he reprised in the
2005 production at the
Old Vic theatre in
London. As well as being an actor in the
Shakespearean tradition, McKellen had become hugely famous with children as
Gandalf in
The Lord of the Rings and
Magneto in
X-Men. "At least we can tell our grandchildren that we saw McKellen's Twankey and it was huge," said
Michael Billington, theatre critic of
The Guardian,
December 20,
2004, entering into the pantomime spirit. However in modern times, the value of these celebrities in provincial pantomime, either as actors or attractions, is sometimes questionable with erstwhile
soap stars, comedians or sportsmen reviving a declining public career.
One of the most popular and critically acclaimed (not to mention commercially successful) pantomimes in recent years has been the one at the
York Theatre Royal. It features no guest celebrities, but rather a regular cast headed by
Berwick Kaler, who has played the dame there for 27 years and has built up a devoted fan-base. Kaler has been credited with reviving a dying tradition. Tickets go on sale April 1; in 2005 the first buyer turned up at 3am. Well before the opening they had sold 30,000 of the 50,000 seats, something that many celebrity-centred pantos could only dream of. He was interviewed by
The Independent newspaper in 2004 for an article marking his 25th season:
"The panto," Kaler says, "has been said to be dying for years. Well, some of them deserve to die." These are the ones that flout tradition by casting a young man as principal boy, or by diminishing the role of the dame, sometimes writing her out altogether. Having cast clapped-out TV stars to draw the audiences, these pseudo-pantos "make no further effort. They just don't try. I dive into a tank of water every year. Who wants to do that?" [
1]
Pantomimes in
Australia at Christmas have also always been very popular, and professional productions often feature celebrities. During the
1950s, a Christmas
Cinderella pantomime in
Sydney featured
Danny Kaye as
Buttons. There are also radio pantomimes at Christmas which are featured on the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Kennett Amateur Theatrical Society presents a pantomime every January [
2].
The Shoestring Shakespeare Company, a troupe based in San Antonio, Texas, puts on a panto every year.
In the United States, however, "pantomime" is more commonly understood to refer a
mime artist, such as
Marcel Marceau.
The Courtenay Little Theatre Company, a troupe based in Courtenay, British Columbia, puts on a panto every year, usually incorporating jokes about local politicians, and different areas making up the Comox Valley.
*
The origins of pantomime stories*
Pantomime tutorial*
The Magic of Pantomime*
Write a Brilliant Pantomime
