As we move into the month of November, at Swan & Lion our minds turn to the upcoming Christmas season. Mince pies, Christmas puddings, roast turkey and cranberry sauce. This really is our favourite time of year. I have been thinking a lot about the topic for this month’s newsletter and after many ideas were considered and rejected, I came up with a topic that brings back memories of past Christmases as a kid in Britain, the quintessentially and quite eccentric British tradition of Pantomine theatre, or panto for short. For Brits, panto is normal, a regular feature of the festive season. But to outsiders, it might all seem a bit strange. In the words of actor Sir Ian McKellen, “You can’t start to explain what a pantomime is — it’s like explaining the rules of cricket”.  So, for those readers that are unfamiliar with it, a panto is a theatrical performance, predominantly aimed at children, performed in the weeks leading up to and just after Christmas. But it is like no other theatrical performance!

Growing up in Bristol, I remember going with my family to see a number of pantos at the Bristol Hippodrome Theatre, a lovely theatre built in 1912 in the heart of Bristol city centre.

At the other end of the theatrical scale, in the 1970s my brother and I would go with my uncle Richard to see the panto at the local village hall in Talaton, a tiny village in deep rural Devon with a population of under 600 residents.  

Pantomime literally means “all kinds” of “mime” (panto-mime) from the Greek pantomimos. The story of British pantomime begins in Commedia dell’Arte’, a 16th-century Italian entertainment which used dance, music, tumbling, acrobatics and featured a cast of mischievous regular characters. During the 17th century, Harlequin and his companions, including Scaramouche, Pantaloon, Pierrot, Punch and love-interest Columbine were improvising comic stories, singing, dancing and cavorting their way across Europe. By the early 18th century, Commedia characters began to appear on the London stage in early pantomimes which were based on classical stories, set to music but without speech. In 1732 John Rich, the most notable early Harlequin who danced but never spoke, built Covent Garden Theatre with the profits of his magical pantomimes. Rich also developed the Harlequinade, a comic chase scene telling the story of the lovers Harlequin and Columbine. Harlequinades were mimed with music and lots of slapstick and tomfoolery, and dominated pantomime for around 100 years. The term ‘slapstick’, meaning a certain type of clownish physical comedy, came from Rich’s Harlequinades – his harlequin used a wooden bat to change the stage scenery by knocking down a series of hinged flaps.

Until 1843, theatre licensing had restricted the use of spoken word in performances. The Theatres Act lifted the restriction, allowing any theatre without a royal patent to produce a play with purely spoken dialogue. Now witty puns, word play and audience participation were added to the repertoire of mime and they developed over the years by the Victorians to what we now know as panto.

Modern pantomimes take place around the Christmas period and are nearly always based on well known children’s stories such as Peter Pan, Aladdin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc. They are performed not only in the best theatres in the cities but also in village halls throughout Britain. Whether a lavish professional performance or a local amateur dramatic production, all pantomimes are well attended. Audience participation is a very important part of a pantomime. The audience are encouraged to boo the villain whenever he enters the stage, argue with the Dame (who is always a man) and warn the Principal Boy (who is often a girl) when the villain is behind them by shouting out “He’s behind you!”. This crowd participation was so much fun as a kid, but then there was the constant fear of being brought onto the stage. That was my worst nightmare, and I would always drop down low in my chair when they were choosing who to bring up onto the stage. I escaped every time, thank God!

Slapstick is another important part of a British pantomime – the throwing of custard pies, the ugly sisters (who are always played by men) falling over, lots of silly costumes including the pantomime animal, which is played by two people in a costume. This month’s recipe is Custard Pie, so I highly recommend fans of custard pie throwing slapstick comedy checking it out. There are videos to enjoy!

https://www.swanandlion.com/party-custard-pie-english/

By the end of the pantomime, the villain has been defeated, true love has conquered all and everyone lives happily ever after.

But what makes a pantomime special? Some people might tell you it’s the humourous songs and special-effects. Whilst others would say that it’s the element of audience participation. Where else can you get to shout at actors as loud as possible without being thrown out of the building?

Whatever people say, there’s never any disagreement on one thing…a pantomime isn’t a proper pantomime without a famous dame. A pantomime dame is a male actor who is dressed up to look like a woman. Famous pantomime dames have huge over-the-top hairstyles, clownish makeup and brightly-coloured and often matronly, clothing. Everything about a pantomime dame is BIG.

It isn’t just about clothing. A pantomime dame will also often perform in an exaggerated, melodramatic, manner. The role of the dame is to play a warm, matronly character or a wicked antagonist whose main purpose is to get the audience participating.

Men had played women’s roles throughout the history of British theatre, as female performers were banned from the stage until after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 when Charles II was coronated as king.

Here are some images of famous dames through the years.

Then we have the Principal Boy, the tradition whereby the romantic hero of the story is played by a young woman. The theatrical device of gender switching became a mainstay of Victorian pantomime. As early as 1837, actor-manager Lucy Eliza Vestris played a male role in Puss in Boots at the Olympic Theatre. In an era when women covered their legs with long skirts, acting in shorts and tights was considered risqué and it hugely helped in increasing the production’s box office earnings.

Over the years, this tradition has gone up and down in popularity. Women were popular through the first and second world wars, but in the 1950s, men began to take over the role. In the 1960s and 1970s, the pendulum swung the other way, but today, in Britain, many of the large commercial pantos have handsome young men, usually television or pop stars, playing the romantic lead.

Another essential element of every panto is the panto animal, a non-talking character. The most popular animal is the horse, which requires two actors to wear the animal costume. Other animals includes donkeys, cows, zebras and camels, depending on the story being told. Though pantomime animals don’t talk, they may make appropriate animal noises on cue and often dance. This must be a pretty tough acting job, under the heat of the stage lights. “The back legs of a pantomime horse” is sometimes used as a way to describe an uncomfortable, humiliating job, especially in a show-business context. After all, the actor in that role is invisible to the audience, has to spend all their time bent over and trusting their partner to lead, and has a job which involves keeping their face adjacent to someone else’s bottom!

In researching this story, an old friend from my first days in Japan living in Kichijoji came into my mind. Ketch, an incredibly talented mime performer. When I first met him, he was a member of the silent comedy duo Gamarjobat. Ketch was the red mohawk, his partner Hiroporn the yellow mohawk.

Ketch left Gamarjobat a few years ago and is now performing solo. And as these things often happen, a few days ago Ketch unexpectedly came to my shop in Ichigaya, just as I was closing. I hadn’t seen him for years and it was such a nice surprise to see him. And his timing was perfect, unsurprisingly! He’s a comedian after all. I told him about this story, and he said that in Japan, his style of performance is called “pantomime”.

So when people ask him ‘What do you do for living?’, he answers ‘pantomime’. But when he was living in London a while back, he was asked by someone what he did for a living in England, and he replied ‘pantomime’, to which the reply was ‘What?? You can make enough money just by working at Christmas time?’. 

That is the moment that Ketch learned the meaning of pantomime in Britain! It’s a Christmas thing.

Please check out Ketch’s work and upcoming schedule at https://linktr.ee/Ketchcomedy

He also has an excellent English site at https://www.ketchcomedy.com/

Covid has been a very tough time for all performers, Ketch included, so please check out his shows, book a workshop or just follow him on Instagram (: