As the Christmas lights start to appear on the high streets, it’s pantomime season. “Oh yes it is” the chorus chimes.
More than any other country, Britain has a long and colourful pantomime history and Christmas pantos – amateur, professional, and everything in between – are an institution. With roots that can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome, modern panto has links with the popular theatre that arose in Middle Ages Italy, Commedia dell’arte, which reached England in the 16th Century. Panto also took inspiration from the later music hall scene, and has evolved to have several key ingredients that keep the audiences coming back for more.
Typically pantomimes are aimed at children, based on a popular fairy tale or folk legends, but in the main the crowds that choose to return time and time again are not the under 10s, but panto devotees of more mature years. Enthusiasts love the fact that they contain elements of novelty and predictability, but also evolve each year to be topical, relevant and offer some kind of commentary and humour.
Everyone know’s there’s nothing funnier than women in men’s clothing, or vice versa (what else could explain the prolongued popularity of Little Britain – now in stage show form). So usually there is a gender role-reversal where the lead boy is played by a young woman, and the old dame is played by a man in drag, harking back to the traditional Twelfth Night festival that was a combination of Epiphany and midwinter feast, when the natural order of things was reversed.
Then there are the pantomimes themselves: old favourites like Aladdin, Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, and Goldilocks (some argue that Peter Pan can’t be a true panto as was a book first). Audience participation in booing villians is obligatory, as are double entendres, two men dressed as a horse, the good fairy entering from the right hand side of the stage and many other whacky or superstitious theatrical traditions. There’s nothing sacred about Pantomime – it’s about having a good time, and the whole family can join in.
Another, more contentious, tradition is the celebrity appearance. It’s certainly not a new phenomenon – even in the 1800s it was common, but debate goes on as to whether local actors should be getting these roles. In 2004 London’s Old Vic showed Aladdin featuring Sir Ian McKellen, fresh from his role as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Neighbours and Home & Away stars and starlette’s make the annual pilgrimage to perform. But a celebrity performance is not the only way to keep the tradition going as the York Theatre Royal proves. It features a cast of regulars headed by Berwick Kaler who has now played the dame for over 28 years. The devoted fans queue from as early as 3am to get tickets, and most of the seats sell out before it even opens.
“The panto,” Kaler said in a 2004 interview in The Independent, “has been said to be dying for years. Well, some of them deserve to die.” He refers to pantos that ignore tradition by casting a young man as principal boy, or by diminishing the role of the dame, sometimes writing her out altogether. With TV stars to draw the audiences, he claims they “make no further effort. They just don’t try. I dive into a tank of water every year. Who wants to do that?” For the purists, pantos are a true art form.
This year York is staging Cinderella, and joining Berwick Kaler again is Martin Barrass in his 21st year at the Theatre Royal.
But it’s not all sweetness and light in panto land – a couple of years ago a community theatre producer in Devon was accused of hate speech after staging a Christmas pantomime entitled Snow White and the Seven Asylum Seekers. When his performance was investigated by the Commission for Racial Equality he instead began working on Snow Person and the Seven Completely Ordinary People.
Big pantomimes mean big money: Qdos, the largest producer of pantomimes in the world, are presenting over 20 in the UK alone this season and have a total cast of 800 actors, dancers, musicians, stage staff and creative teams. In regional theatres across Britain, pantomimes do more than entertain – they bring much needed revenue, and the biggest theatres fight for stars and names that will keep their pantomimes alive. According to www.bigpantoguide.co.uk, the 2006-7 panto season the favourites are:
Cinderella – 37 so far
Aladdin – 30 and counting
Dick Whittington – 19
The theatres that are shining right now include the Hippodrome in Birmingham, who are putting on Cinderella, starring Brian Conley as Buttons, to help support the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
The Mayflower in Southhampton is featuring a musical, rather than a panto this year with Craig McLachlan staring in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Pantomime peaked at the Mayflower in 1994 when 126,256 people saw Lesley Joseph star with John Nettles in Dick Whittington (it was also the first pantomime to take a million pounds at the box office).
At the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton, Snow White is on, starring the same crowd-pulling Lesley Joseph (12 years on) as the Wicked Queen.
There are simply so many, you won’t be able to escape them. Although many claim pantos are in decline, they’re a much loved and popular form of theatre, most certainly alive and kicking throughout the UK and hopefully will be for many years to come, as the crowds keep on cheering “look behind you”.
Looking at just a small sample of what’s on offer around the UK this year:
Milton Keynes has its very own rags to riches story in barman-turned-actor Richard Reynard, who was serving drinks to the crowd of 100,000 last year, but this year belongs to the star-studded cast that includes comedian Bradley Walsh (Coronation Street), Kacey Ainsworth (EastEnders’ Little Mo), Laura Hamilton (CITV’s Fun Song Factory, Nickelodeon) and George Wood (CBBC I Dream).
Manchester has Aladdin at The Lowry, featuring Bill Ward (Coronation Street) and Casey-Lee Jolleys (ex-Coronation Street). But Manchester is also home to Snow White with even more Coronation Street stars, John Savident and Suranne Jones.
And following on the soap star theme, the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury has a trifecta with Amanda Barrie (Coronation Street and Bad Girls), John Altman (EastEnders) and Ben Nicholas (Neighbours) starring in Jack and the Beanstalk.
Bournemouth is showing Robin Hood and Babe in the Woods with Anne Charleston (from Neighbours), Tom Craig (Coronation Street), Pete Hillier (Cbeebies) and Douglas Mounce (a comedian and impressionist).
Sleeping Beauty is at the Sheffield Lyceum, with Andrew Ryan and Stephanie Williams joining Sherrie Hewson (Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Loose Women), Helen Fraser (Bad Girls), Tom Owen (Last of the Summer Wine), and Christopher Pizzey (Basil Brush Show).
Swindon’s Cinderella has been moved from the Wyvern to the Arts Centre because of an asbestos scare, but other than that the show goes on.
Liverpool has Snow White as well as a host of musicals: Santa Claus the musical, or Scrooge the Musical.
Bedford has Babes in the Woods starring Maurice Kachuk as Nurse Molly Coddle.
The Blairgowrie has Cinderella.
Abbey Theatre in Nuneaton is performing Robinson Crusoe.
Royal Spa Theatre in Leamington is performing Sleeping Beauty.
The Journal Tyne Theatre in Newcastle has Dick Whittington.
Belfast has Aladdin at the Waterfront Theatre.
Glasgow also has Aladdin at the King’s Theatre.
Bristol’s Hippodrome has Peter Pan with comedian Joe Pasquale, along with Peter Blake and Kerris Peeling.
Dublin has Mother Goose at the Gaiety Theatre.
Even the London Wetland Centre is in on the Panto season with the appropriately named The Wind in the Rushes.
Kendall Brewery has Robin Hood.
Aladdin is at the Broadway Barking.
And who could forget the plucky Hereford Young Farmers who put on their annual pantomime, most recently, Robin Hood.
