You may wish to do the vocabulary exercise on this before you read the text.
The history of pantomime
The style and content of modern pantomime 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. A "comedy of professional artists" traveling from province to province in Italy and then France, they improvised and told stories which told lessons to the crowd and changed the main character depending on where they were performing. The great clown Grimaldi transformed the format. Each story had the same fixed characters: the lovers, father, servants (one being crafty and the other stupid), etc. These rôles/characters can be found in today's pantomimes and are usually clearly either 'goodies' or 'baddies'.
The gender rôle reversal resembles the old festival of Twelfth Night*, a combination of Epiphany** and a 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.
Pantomimes gradually became more topical and comic, often involving as many special theatrical effects as possible. Until the early 20th century, British pantomimes often concluded with a harlequinade, entertainment of slapstick clowning, juggling and tumbling.
Pantomime traditions and conventions
Traditionally performed at Christmas, with family audiences consisting mainly of children and parents, British pantomime is still a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, in-jokes, audience participation and mild sexual innuendo. Plots are often loosely based on traditional children's stories such as Aladdin, Babes in the Wood or Cinderella, the most popular one.
The form has a number of conventions, some of which have changed or weakened a little over the years.
- The leading male juvenile character (the "principal boy") is almost always played by a young woman.
- An older woman (the pantomime dame - often the hero's mother) is usually played by a man in drag.
- Risqué double entendre, often creating innuendo out of perfectly innocent phrases. This is in theory over the heads of the children in the audience. A typical phrase might be something like 'You're a big girl!' to a woman with enormous breasts.
- Audience participation, including calls of "look behind you!" (or "he's behind you!"), and "oh yes it is!" or "oh no it isn't!" The audience is always encouraged to "boo" the villain.
- A song combining a well-known tune with re-written lyrics. The audience is encouraged to sing the song and often one half of the audience is challenged to sing "their" chorus louder than the other half.
- 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.
- The good fairy always enters from the right side of the stage and the evil villain enters from the left. (In Commedia Dell 'Arte the right side of the stage symbolized Heaven and the left side symbolized Hell.)
- The members of the cast throw out sweets to the children in the audience.
In recent years pantomime has had guest stars from TV programmes, and even celebrities from high-brow theatre such as the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) or the sporting world. These individuals sometimes have little more than a walk-on part, and are supported by jobbing actors and musicians.
*Twelfth Night - the twelfth night after Christmas Day, January 11th. It has often been a night for special fun and amusement - you may have heard of Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night which is in this tradition.
**Epiphany - the Christian festival on January 6th celebrating the traditional idea that three wise men arrived then shortly after the birth of Jesus
The Pantomime season
Although we associate a pantomime with Christmas (Dec 25th), the pantomime season can last from about the end of November to the beginning of February. If a theatre has a good tradition of pantomime, it can be a useful 'house-filler' ie a show which attracts good audiences to the theatre. Some theatres make a particular speciality of their pantomime which draws loyal crowds every year. The actor Berwick Kaler has played the dame in the panto at the Theatre Royal in York for nearly 30 years, and tickets are snapped up when they first go on sale in April!
Some amateurs write their own panto and act it in their place of work, or in their local community.This might be just one performance.
Panto
