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It's That Time of Year AgainDateline: 21st December, 2003
Yes, panto time, when audiences up and down the UK scream and yell at a bunch of actors, some of whom are cross-dressing, who spend most of their time telling some of the oldest and worst jokes imaginable whilst acting out a story which everyone in the audience knows. A good old British tradition! To be honest, I'm a bit pantoed-out (OK, I made up that word). I've been to see and review four pantos, produced a touring version of Aladdin (and seen a number of performances of same), based a serious show about public consultation on a panto, and have just finished checking the proofs of It's Behind You, my book on panto which will be out in time for Chriostmas 2004. I've learned a few things, the most memorable of which is the fact that an audience of kids screaming at the top of its collective voice is just as headache/tinnitus-inducing if it's in a school hall which holds 200 or a 2,000-seater theatre! Oh yes it very definitely is! But pantos are changing. For one thing, they're becoming shorter. About two hours (including interval) is about the norm nowadays whereas twenty or thirty years ago they tended to be about half an hour longer. So what's changed? Not the stories. In fact, today there is more focus on the story than there used to be. In the past the story could - and often did - get lost in a welter of jokes and speciality acts. Now the specialities have almost all gone, although there was a revival of the good old UV act in one show I saw this year. And there aren't as many of the extended sketches that there used to be. I've seen five pantos this year and not a single schoolroom scene! We used one of these sketches in our show - the Magic Hat - but I didn't see any in a theatre-based show. Some of the standard quick gags are were there, including the classic from the Ugly Sisters - you know the one: one sister is trying on the glass slipper and says, "I can't get my foot in the crystal slipper," to which the other replies, "You couldn't get your foot in the Crystal Palace" - and both versions of Cinderella I saw used it. I think one reason for the decline in the longer sketches is probably due to the fact that few pantos nowadays can afford more than - at most - two comics in addition to the Dame. Usually, in fact, there's just one. Another reason is the perceived necessity to keep the show short and to tell the story clearly, so interruptions like the classic drill sequence on board ship in Dick Whittington (The captain calls "Fall in!" so they all run to jump over the side of the ship) or the laundry scene (including putting the Chinese Policemen through the mangle) in Aladdin, or the decorating the parlour (in any panto you care to name: who said you have to have a logical reason to include a good gag?), seem to have vanished from many shows. Pantomime changes. It always has done, from its first appearance in the seventeenth century it has grown and evolved and we can't expect it to stay as it was when we were kids, for if it does, it dies. Yes, it is a Christmas ritual, but for it to be meaningful to the present and future generations, that ritual has to meet their needs and expectations, not ours. Which is why I feel that the review of one panto in my local paper has to be one of the most stupid pieces of reviewing I have ever read. The writer condemned the production she was reviewing because - can you believe it! - it did not have the same effect on her that the first panto she ever saw had when she was a little girl. She sat a couple of rows away from me and must have seen (and heard!) the excitement and sheer joy of the kids in the audience. That's what matters. That is what panto is all about. Articles Indices:
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