Pantomime

For other uses, see Pantomime (disambiguation).

The Christmas Pantomime colour lithograph bookcover, 1890, showing the harlequinade characters

Pantomime (informally, panto) – not to be confused with the theatrical medium of mime – is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally performed in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar, and Malta, mostly during the Christmas and New Year season. The word derives from the Greek "παντόμιμος" (pantomimos), "pantomimic actor" and from "παντός" (pantos), genitive of "πᾶς" (pas), "every, all" + "μῖμος" (mimos), "imitator, actor".

History

A "pantomime" in Ancient Greece was originally a group who "imitates all" accompanied by sung narrative and instrumental music, often played on the flute. The word later came to be applied to the performance itself. The pantomime was a popular form of entertainment in ancient Greece and later, Rome. Like theatre, it encompassed the genres of comedy, tragedy, and sex. No ancient pantomime libretto has survived, partly because the genre was looked down upon by the literary elite. Nonetheless, notable ancient poets such as Lucan wrote for the pantomime, no doubt in part because the work was well paid. In a speech of the late 1st century AD now lost, the orator Aelius Aristides condemned the pantomime for its erotic content and the "effeminacy" of its dancing.

In the Middle Ages, the Mummers Play was a traditional British folk play performed during the festive gatherings of both urban and rural communities and contain many of the archetypal elements of the contemporary "pantomime" such as stage fights, coarse humour and fantastic creatures. It is often claimed that many of these elements are the cultural remnants of pre Christian beliefs. 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 is sometimes traced back to pre-Christian European festivals such as Samhain and Saturnalia. The pantomime horse may also be related to the Grey Mare of the British cult of the goddess Epona as it frequently surfaces in traditional British culture from Wales, Devon, Cornwall (see Obby Oss), Brittany and other parts of England.

John Rich as Harlequin, c. 1720

Pantomime that looked similar to how it is known today began in the early 1700s. In fact, "the year 1702 marks the first appearance of the first pantomime introduced to the English stage, written by John Weaver ... and entitled Tavern Bilkers". Produced at the exceedingly popular Drury Lane theatre in London, England, this pantomime consisted of only dancing and motions. Pantomimes at this time were solely "dumb-shows" for a few reasons. One of these reasons involves a law against the production of spoken drama in London without special permission, which was not changed until Parliament passed an act in 1843 "stipulat[ing] that any theatre could now produce a play containing spoken dialogue".

After this act is passed, writers begin undertaking the new challenges posed by this fresh form of drama. As mentioned previously, the majority of the following pantomime stories are ripped-off from well-known bedtime stories. Similar to how classic Disney movies were written, the authors would give their own take on the story and alter it to fit the new style, but it was essentially the same plot every English child had heard their parents tell them plenty of times. The second reason pantomimes began as a wordless form of entertainment is due to the lack of education received by a man named John Rich. Rich grew up in the theatre but was said to have had a speech impediment; regardless, he was a smart enough performer to keep an audience interested in his movements and actions long enough to tell an appealing story. With his 1724 production of The Necromancer or History of Dr. Faustus, Rich began popularizing the newfound show style: pantomime. The majority of pantomimes at this time were simply re-tellings (without words, of course) of traditional Latin stories with a break in between the two acts during which a short bit of zany fun would be performed. This intermission entertainment transformed into the popular nineteenth century Harlequinade.

The style and content of modern pantomime also has very clear and strong links with the continental Commedia dell'arte, a form of popular theatre that arose in Italy in the Early Modern Period, and reached England by the 16th century. A "comedy of professional artists" travelling from province to province in Italy and then France improvised and told stories which told lessons to the crowd, changing 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 roles/characters can be found in today's pantomimes.

Development as a distinctly English entertainment

See also Harlequinade

Playbill of an English circus and pantomime performance, 1803

The pantomime first arrived in England as entr'actes between opera pieces, eventually evolving into separate shows.

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, actor and manager 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. According to some sources, the Lincoln's Inn Field Theatre and the Drury Lane Theatre were the first to stage something like real pantomimes (in the later sense that has become codified with its fairly rigid set of conventions), creating high competition between them to put on the more elaborate performance. As manager of Drury Lane in the 1870s, Augustus Harris is now considered the father of modern pantomime. These pantomimes were followed by, or incorporated, a Harlequinade.

There seems to be some disagreement among scholars as to exactly when the true pantomime genre got started. According to one eminent authority, Russell A. Peck, the John Hall Deane Professor of English at the University of Rochester, "The first Cinderella Pantomime in England was the 1804 production at Drury Lane, Dir. Mr. Byrne", with music by Michael Kelly (1762–1826). This date would seem too early for panto in its mature form, with its extensive adherence to a set of conventions, including the pantomime dame role, the principal boy played by a young woman, the animal-costume roles, audience participation, etc. But, if Peck means that this was the first pantomime in England in the older sense of "low opera", then his date seems too late, for he seems to disregard the fact that pantomime as "low opera" had already arisen in Restoration-era England, considerably prior to 1804. Even limiting this claim to Cinderella, one finds that other sources give 1870 as the date of the first Cinderella pantomime in England (see below).

Pantomime traditions and conventions

Traditionally performed at Christmas, with family audiences, British pantomime is now a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, topical references, audience participation, and mild sexual innuendo.

Traditional structure

In the 1800s, children went to the theatre (primarily around Christmas and New Years) to witness the craziness of the Harlequinade, or "the comic business" as it is also called. It was the most exciting part of the "panto" because it was fast paced and consisted of scenic magic as well as slapstick comedy. The presence of slapstick in this part of the show is not at all surprising considering the characters are all based on those found in Italian Commedia dell'arte, a somewhat improvised, comedic form of travelling theatre consisting of various stock characters including Arlecchino, Colombina, Pantalone, and Pulcinella.

The plot of the Harlequinade was relatively simple; the star-crossed lovers, Harlequin and Columbine, run away from Columbine's father, Pantaloon, who is being slowed down in his pursuit of them by his servant The Clown. The Clown character is pulled from Commedia dell'arte's Pulcinella. Originally, Harlequin possessed magical powers that he used to help himself and his love interest escape. He would tap his wooden sword (a derivative of the Commedia dell'arte slapstick) on the floor to make a grand transition of the world around him take place. The scene would switch from being inside some house or castle to, generally speaking, the streets of the town with storefronts as the backdrop. Through reading many transition sequences from different pantomimes, however, it becomes clear that this narration and the creation new scene in later pantomimes typically instigated by the Fairy Godmother character from the Fairy Story.

The Opening, or Fairy Story, follows the familiar plotline of a fairy tale or nursery rhyme. The stories still popular today include "Aladdin", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Cinderella", and "Puss in Boots". Most of these stories' pantomime titles would have included the words "Harlequin and", or something of that sort, at the beginning as he was the most important character of the "panto" for quite a long time. Eventually, the Opening became the more popular part of the production and by the 1870s, the Harlequinade had mostly died out of fashion, although most authors of books on the subject seem to agree that "pantos" were better when the Harlequinade still held a large place in the night's festivities. Possibly more interesting than "the comic business" itself was the transition into it. The Fairy Godmother character would come out after the resolution and magically transform the leads into their new identities as the Harlequinade characters. Following is an example of how this complex transition may take place:

Lovers stand forth. With you we shall begin.
You will be fair Columbine – you Harlequin.
King Jamie there, the bonnie Scottish loon,
Will be a famous cheild for Pantaloon.
Though Guy Fawkes now is saved from rocks and axe,
I think he should pay the powder-tax.
His guyish plots blown up – nay, do not frown;
You've always been a guy – now be a Clown.

In this passage, Guy Fawkes' Fairy Queen creates the characters of the Harlequinade in the most common fashion of simply telling the characters to change. The principle male and female characters, also called "the lovers" and typically both played by young women, from the beginning plotline become Columbine and Harlequin, the mother or father of Columbine becomes Pantaloon and the servant character, the Clown. They would transition into the new characters as the scenery around them changed and would proceed in the "zany fun" section of the performance. This structure of performance was popular in the nineteenth century and has since fallen out of style.

Traditional stories

Pantomime story lines and scripts usually make no direct reference to Christmas, and are almost always based on traditional children's stories.

There are four classic pantomime stories: Cinderella, Aladdin (sometimes combined with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves or other Arabian Nights tales, and traditionally set in China – following the original tale – rather than the Middle East, as in Disney's version), Dick Whittington and His Cat (based on a 17th century play), and Jack and the Beanstalk (sometimes including references to nursery rhymes and other children's stories involving characters called Jack, such as Jack and Jill). Because of their popularity, major theatres tend to stage these in a four-year cycle.

Smaller theatres and amateur companies sometimes perform a wider range of stories, but still within a relatively narrow range—mostly based on the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, Joseph Jacobs, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Grimm Brothers; stories from the Arabian Nights; Disney-inspired fairy tales like Snow White; and well-known modern children's fantasy stories like The Wizard of Oz.

While the familiarity of the audience with the original story is generally assumed, plot lines are almost always 'adapted' for comic or satirical effect, it being common for characters and situations from other stories to be interpolated into the plot. Certain familiar scenes tend to recur, regardless of plot relevance, and highly unlikely resolution of the plot is common. Straight re-tellings of the original stories are rare in the extreme.

Performance conventions

The form has a number of conventions, some of which have changed or weakened a little over the years, and by no means all of which are obligatory. Some of these conventions were once common to other genres of popular theatre such as melodrama.

• The leading male juvenile character (the principal boy) is traditionally played by a young woman, usually in tight-fitting male garments (such as breeches) that make her female charms evident.
• An older woman (the pantomime dame – often the hero's mother) is usually played by a man in drag.
• Risqué double entendre, often wringing innuendo out of perfectly innocent phrases. This is, in theory, over the heads of the children in the audience.
• Audience participation, including calls of "He's behind you!" (or "Look behind you!"), and "Oh, yes it is!" and "Oh, no it isn't!" The audience is always encouraged to boo the villain and "awwwww" the poor victims, such as the rejected dame, who usually fancies the prince.
• Music may be original but is more likely to combine well-known tunes with re-written lyrics. At least one "audience participation" song is traditional: one half of the audience may be challenged to sing "their" chorus louder than the other half.
• The animal, played by an actor in "animal skin" or animal costume. It is often a 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 enters from stage right (from the audience's point of view this is on the left) and the villain enters from stage left (right from the point of view of the audience). This convention goes back to the medieval mystery plays, where the right side of the stage symbolised Heaven and the left side symbolised Hell.
• A slapstick comedy routine may be performed, often a decorating or baking scene, with humour based on throwing messy substances. Until the 20th century, British pantomimes often concluded with a harlequinade, a free-standing entertainment of slapstick. Nowadays the slapstick is more or less incorporated into the main body of the show.
• In the 19th century, until the 1880s, pantomimes typically included a transformation scene in which a Fairy Queen magically transformed the pantomime characters into the characters of the harlequinade, who then performed the harlequinade.
• The Chorus, who can be considered extras on-stage, and often appear in multiple scenes (but as different characters) and who perform a variety of songs and dances throughout the show. Due to their multiple roles they may have as much stage-time as the lead characters themselves.

Guest celebrity

Another contemporary pantomime 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 artists for his pantomimes.

Until the decline of the British music hall tradition by the late 1950s, many popular artists played in pantomimes across the country. Many modern pantomimes use popular artists to promote the pantomime, and the play is often adapted to allow the star to showcase their well-known act, even when such a spot has little relation to the plot, for example, Rolf Harris might perform Jake the Peg in a pantomime about Aladdin.

Pantomime roles

Major roles

The main roles within pantomime are often gender-swapped, and can be played by either sex:

Role	Role description	Played by
Principal Boy or Girl	Main character in the pantomime	Traditionally a young woman in "male" attire
Panto Dame	Normally the hero's mother	Traditionally a middle aged man in drag
Co-Principal Boy or Girl	Normally the hero's love interest	Woman
Comic Lead	Does physical comedy and relates to children in the audience. Often has a phrase he repeats several times and the audience traditionally call out the opposite in response. For example he says "Oh no it isn't." The audience replies "Oh yes it is."	Man
Villain	The pantomime antagonist. Often a wicked wizard or witch.	Man or woman

Minor roles

Role	Role description	Played by
Good fairy or Wise woman	Usual role is to help (traditionally silly) hero defeat (much more intelligent) villain. Often has a role in the resolution of the plot	Woman (or Man in drag)
Animals, etc.	e.g. Jack's cow	"Pantomime horse" or puppet(s)
Chorus	Members often have several minor roles
Dancers		Usually a group of young boys and girls

In the United Kingdom and Ireland today

Many theatres in cities and provincial towns throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland continue to have an annual professional pantomime. Pantomime is also very popular with amateur dramatics societies throughout the UK and Ireland, and the pantomime season (roughly speaking, December to February) will see pantomime productions in many village halls and similar venues across the country.

Outside the United Kingdom

In Australia

Pantomimes in Australia at Christmas were once very popular, although the familiarity of young Australians with the genre has declined greatly since the middle of the last century, for all manner of reasons, and it is no longer the force it once was. In the hey-day of Australian Pantomime, professional productions often featured celebrities. During the 1950s, a Christmas Cinderella pantomime in Sydney featured Danny Kaye as Buttons. Radio Christmas pantomimes have been featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

There is an emerging trend of works contributed on an unrestrictive license, containing music on a similar basis.

In Canada

Christmas pantomimes have been performed in Canada for as many years as they have in the UK.

In the United States

Main article: American Panto

Pantomime, as described in this article, is seldom performed in the United States. As a consequence, Americans commonly understand the word "pantomime" to refer to the art of mime, as was practised, for example, by Marcel Marceau and Nola Rae, and assume it to be a solo performance such as is as common on street corners as on stage.

However, certain shows that came from the pantomime traditions, especially Peter Pan, are performed quite often, and a few American theatre companies produce traditional British-style pantomime as well as American adaptations of the form. Other descriptive terms like 'family musical' may be used in marketing, to avoid the issue of mime/pantomime confusion. Lythgoe Family Productions, based in California, have successfully produced two American pantos, Snow White and Cinderella in 2011. They are producing four in 2012. Pantomonium Productions has produced yearly pantos in New York City since 1994.

Earliest US productions

According to Professor Russell A. Peck of the University of Rochester, the earliest pantomime productions in the US were Cinderella pantomime productions in New York in March 1808, New York again in August 1808, Philadelphia in 1824, and Baltimore in 1839. However, it is not clear to what extent these early productions resembled pantomime by its current definition in England, which dates from about the last third of the 19th century.

See also

• ITV Panto
• Mime artist
• Mummers Play
• Victorian burlesque
• Weihnachtsmärchen (Christmas fairy tale)

References

Sources

• Wilson, A. E., "The Story of Pantomime" (London: Home & Van Thal, 1949).
• Eigner, Edwin M., "The Dickens Pantomime" (Berkeley: University of California, 1989).
• Broadbent, R.J., A History of Pantomime (London, 1901).
• M.-H. Garelli, Danser le mythe. La pantomime et sa réception dans la culture antique (Louvain 2007).
• E. Hall, R. Wyles, edd., New Directions in Ancient Pantomime (Oxford 2008).

External links

• MusicalTalk Podcast discussing British pantomime, its origins and traditions.
• Pantomonium Productions
• Geneva Amateur Operatic Society
• Pantomime Shows in UK
• The Secret Pantomime Society
• Theatre Britain
• Madrid Players
• Panto in Wales seen through American eyes
• "Pantomime" by Catherine Haill, V & A
• "The Rise and Fall of the Pantomime Harlequinade"
• The origin of popular pantomime stories