He's behind you!: Pantomime

Q. We're all familiar with that great British institution pantomime, but where does it come from

A. Pantomime as we understand it today is a Christmas entertainment intended primarily - though, given the innuendo quotient, not exclusively - for children. While the world at large sees it is a strange British institution, its roots lie far back in time and in continental Europe. The word itself is Latin derived from Greek, and a pantomimus was a mimic actor in Classical Rome.

�

The more immediate ancestor of modern pantomime, however, is the Italian commedia dell'arte, from which several of the stock characters of pantomime have evolved. Harlequinades, as these performances were known in England, were played as end-pieces to a long evening's entertainment of farces and tragedies. Similar to the French Arlequin comic dances, these spectacles, accompanied by music and dance, were performed without words, but, as the form developed, more and more speech came to be added.

�

Q. So, it's not peculiarly British at all, then

A. In the form that we know it today, it is very much a British thing, and, with the exception of pockets of the former Empire, it's pretty much incomprehensible to anybody else.

�

Q. When did the form we know today first develop

A. The first recognisable pantomime was probably Robinson Crusoe at Drury Lane, which introduced the infant Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837), the most important clown of his day and a major figure in the development of the modern pantomime. Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp followed at Covent Garden, with Babes in the Wood performed as an opera at the Haymarket.

�

By 1800, pantomime was emerging as a distinct form in its own right, with the Harlequinade now forming the greater part of the evening's entertainment, the Dame performed by a man and the performances presented most frequently at Christmas and Easter. In 1804, Cinderella was performed at Drury Lane and in 1806 Mother Goose at Covent Garden and Sleeping Beauty at Drury Lane.

�

During the next twenty years, Puss in Boots, Dick Whittington and his Cat and Sinbad the Sailor all made their appearance, as did the first female principal boy at Covent Garden in 1815. In 1861, H.J. Byron's Aladdin introduced for the first time the famous Widow Twankey at the Strand Theatre. This production confirmed the casting of the male pantomime dame and the female principal boy which remains standard practice today.

�

After the mid-19th century, performances of pantomime became limited to an extended Christmas season, and the real heyday of the pantomime was the first half of the 20th century. But the spiralling costs of mounting the increasingly spectacular, star-studded performances began to take their toll and now there are no West End pantomimes and the whole thing is rather less extravagant.

�

Q. Who are the principal characters

Good and Evil: The Fairy Queen and the Demon King appear in all pantomimes, although their exact guise and title may differ, and names vary according to the location and topicality of shows. Good always enters from stage right and Evil from stage left

�

Principal Boy: Male impersonators were not new to the English stage, but Victorian men loved to see a comely actress showing her legs - it was about the only opportunity they had to do so - which made sure the institution of Principal Boy being played by a younger woman became well established. There was a brief vogue in the mid 20th century for these parts to be played by men - Norman Wisdom took the title role in Aladdin at the London Palladium in 1956-7 and was followed in the next decade or so by a wave of male pop stars - but this heresy was swept aside by the beginning of the 1970s.

�

Dame: Female impersonators had been around even longer. After women were allowed on to the stage after the Restoration in 1680, a tradition still remained of men playing some comic female roles. In no way related to the drag act, the Dame - or Dames, in the case of Cinderella's ugly step-sisters - is a study in female eccentricity. George Lacy is said to have started the tradition in 1924 of the Dame changing her costume constantly and, indeed, prior to that time, costume changes were rare. Almost every time the Dame enters she is wearing a new costume, each one outdoing the previous in absurdity.

�

Animals: All pantomimes have them, and they are usually acted by speciality turns in 'skins'. Animal characters are always used to get the audience's sympathy and support. It is true to say that some of the great started their careers by literally playing the back legs of the pantomime horse - back at the turn of the twentieth century, at the Hippodrome Theatre, Stockport, the front end of the horse was played by a young man named Charlie Chaplin.

�

Q. How does it keep going

A. The continuing appeal of pantomime for children - and for parents rediscovering the things they enjoyed when young - comes from the fact that, although the routines may be a century or more old, the performances are peppered with references from contemporary popular culture - especially TV and the use of current chart songs - and at least one of the actors will be a TV name, preferably from one of the soaps.

�

As with all art forms, as long as pantomime continues to evolve and stay in tune with its audience, it's in no danger of disappearing, and, in fact, has seen something of a resurgence in popularity in recent years with at least 200 annual professional productions in the UK, and amateur performances numbering thousands around the world.

�

Oh, no it hasn't!

Oh, yes it has!

�

See also the article on vaudeville

�

For more on Arts & Literature click here

�

By Simon Smith