The idea of pantomime originated in ancient Greece and later became popular during the reign of Augustus in ancient Rome. The name is taken from a masked dancer named Pantomimus, and the comedy and tragedy content of modern pantomime has clear ties to the Commedia dell’Arte that began in Italy in the Middle Ages and reached England in the mid-17th century when the Commedia dell’Arte characters began to appear for the first time in plays in English.
Often times, the Commedia dell’Arte tour companies were made up of family members who generally improvised their way through a plot involving characters like Arlecchino (or Harlequin) and their true love, Columbina (or Columbine). . Other standard characters were the overprotective father, Pantaloon, who refused to allow the heroic Harlequin to seek his daughter’s affection. In some versions, Pantaloon has a servant, Pulchinello, later known as Clown. These characters varied depending on who the artists were entertaining, but the great clown Grimaldi eventually transformed the format so that each story had the same characters that can still be found in pantomimes today.
It was during the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th century, when English pantomime became closely associated with the Christmas tradition and was considered a gift for children.
Now traditionally performed at Christmas for family audiences, British pantomime is now a popular form of theater with song, dance, comedy, antics, audience participation, and mild sexual innuendo. The plots are often loosely based on traditional children’s stories, with the most popular titles being:
or Aladdin (often combined with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves)
o Babes in the Wood (often combined with Robin Hood)
or Beauty and the Beast
or Cinderella, the most popular of all pantomimes
or Dick Whittington, which is based on a 17th century play.
o Goldilocks and the three bears
or Jack and the beans
or mother goose
or Peter Pan
or Puss in Boots
or Sleeping Beauty
or Snow White
Panto has a number of traditions and superstitions, most of which have been maintained over the years:
o The main male youth character is the main boy and is almost always played by a woman generally dressed in short, tight skirts accompanied by knee-high leather boots and fishnet stockings. In the past, when women covered their legs with ankle-length garments, this provided a great opportunity to show off a pair of shapely legs and make the panto appeal to a male audience.
o The pantomime lady is usually played by a man. This dates back to the Victorian Music Halls, when audiences loved to see famous comedians playing the role of Jack’s mother, Sarah the Cook in Dick Whittington or Window Twankey in Aladdin. Female comedians were virtually unknown back then and the tradition has continued ever since.
o There is a lot of audience participation with shouts of “it’s after you!” and “oh yes it is!” or “oh no, it isn’t!” The audience is always encouraged to “boo” the villain.
o Usually there is a score towards the end of the panto when half the audience is challenged to sing “their” chorus louder than the other half. Cast members throw candy at children in the audience and often ask audience members to come up on stage. These scenes are often used as fillers to give the cast time to change into their riding costumes.
o The good fairy always enters from the right side of the stage and the evil villain enters from the left. This comes from the Commedia dell ‘Arte when the right side of the stage symbolizes heaven and the left side symbolizes hell.
o In pantomime, the last lines said at the end; (traditionally in rhyming couplets) should never be pronounced in rehearsal, as this is considered very bad luck. They are spoken for the first time on opening night.
o The last performers to appear on stage in the walk down or finale are traditionally the Principal Boy and Girl, who usually get married at the end of the show.
o It is considered very unfortunate to have real flowers on stage, unless it is delivered to the protagonist during the curtain call.
o Whistling in a dressing room is a bad omen and if you care to get caught doing this you have to leave the room, go around three times, knock and go back inside, usually releasing a curse.
Hopefully the tradition will continue for years to come, but the genre is endangered by the modern threat of political correctness with some theaters thinking that men dressed as women are degrading.
Pantomimes, too, follow the film industry and profit from commercialization by pressuring parents to buy panto badges, the fairy tiara or the demon mask that are sold in the lobby at often hugely inflated prices.
Fortunately, there are still many regional production theaters and dedicated artists ready to perform two shows a day during the Christmas and New Years period. Some of the leading stars in the UK this year include Brian Conley as Buttons in Cinderella at the Cliffs Pavilion Southend; Shane Richie as Aladdin at the Wycombe Swan Theater; Joe Pasquale and Ray Quinn in Sleeping Beauty at Birmingham Racecourse; John Barrowman in Robin Hood at the New Theater Cardiff: Paul Nicholas playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the Hull New Theater and Craig Revell Horwood from Strictly Come Dancing playing the Evil Queen at Llandudno.