Pantomime

Many foreigners think that pantomime is the same as mime, but in Britain they are two different things. Everyone knows that “mime” means acting without speaking, but «pantomime» has changed in its form over the centuries, and Britain pantomime is now a very noisy show full of shouting and singing from the audience as well as the actors.

We do not have pantomime all through the year. It is a winter show which begins in late November or early December and continues for a couple of months after Christmas. All schoolchildren have their winter holiday in sometime in this period, and if they are lucky, their parents will take them to see the local pantomime. In London there are several to choose from.

The story of a pantomime is well-known. There are about half a dozen traditional stories like «Sleeping Beauty», «Cinderella», and «Peter Pan», and «Snow White», and most children all over the world know them by heart. The famous American animator and film-maker, Walt Disney, was quick to recognize their popularity and made several of them into full-length cartoon films.

The strangest thing about pantomime is that the handsome young man or «principal boy» is always played by a woman and the old lady or «pantomime dame» is always played by a man! This creates a funny situation with two women singing love songs to each other – because the handsome prince is always a woman. But this is a very old tradition and the audience expects it to be like this. To make it stranger still, the girl in boy’s costume always looks and sounds completely like a girl – and similarly, everyone can easily see that the old woman is really a man.

One well-known actor was recently preparing for his part as the «dame» in London production and he sent his special costume in advance by train. Unfortunately, it got lost and never arrived at its destination; it included an enormous false bosom which would be no use to anyone except a clown and certainly very difficult to replace.

The origins of pantomime are very old, going right back to the Italian folk comedy of the 16^th century called commedia dell’arte. This form of theatre with its visual humour, practical jokes and great freedom for the actors to improvise within the script affected the theatre of several countries and some of its original characters, like Harlequin and Pantalone became international. However, until the late 17^th century in England, it was thought to be immoral for a woman to act in the theatre. So when Shakespeare was alive all the women’s parts were played by men and for this reason the story of a play often included some reason for having the young heroines dressing as men to disguise themselves. This explains the strange custom of having men as women and women as men in pantomime, although there is certainly no reason for it now and few people know why it began.

Nowadays it is usual to find a pop-singer taking a leading part in a pantomime. This attracts the crowds and brings in money. The public like to see a famous face and don’t seem to mind that some of the pop-stars aren’t really professional actors. But modern audience do not want pantomime to change too much. Everyone enjoys shouting answers and singing songs with the actors or laughing at the “pantomime horse” which finds a place in every show.