Pantomime (informally, panto)— not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the Christmas and New Year season.[1] The word derives from the Greek "παντόμιμος" (pantomimos), "pantomimic actor"[2] and that from "παντός" (pantos), genitive of "πᾶς" (pas), "every, all"[3] + "μῖμος" (mimos), "imitator, actor".[4]
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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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]
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.
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.
See also Harlequinade
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,[8] 'The first Cinderella Pantomime in England was the 1804 production at Drury Lane, Dir. Mr. Byrne,'[9] 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).
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.
Panto story lines and scripts usually make no direct reference to Christmas, and are almost always based on traditional children's stories, including the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, Joseph Jacobs, Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm Brothers - not to mention tales from the Arabian Nights. 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.
Popular titles include:
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.
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.
The main roles within pantomime are often gender-swapped, and can be played by either sex:
| Role | Role description | Played by |
|---|---|---|
| Principal Boy/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/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 reply "Oh yes it is". |
Man |
| Villain | The pantomime antagonist. Often a wicked wizard or witch. | Man or Woman |
| Role | Role description | Played by |
|---|---|---|
| Good Fairy/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 |
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.
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.[11]
There is an emerging trend of works contributed on an unrestrictive license, containing music on a similar basis.[12]
Christmas pantomimes have been performed in Canada for as many years as they have in the UK.
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.
According to Professor Russell A. Peck[13] 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.[9] 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.