What is a Pantomime A pantomime is a

What is a Pantomime? A pantomime is a type of play particularly popular in Britain. They are often performed around Christmas time. Pantomimes are often based on fairy tales and traditional tales, such as: • • Snow White and the Seven Dwarves; Jack and the Beanstalk; Cinderella; Aladdin. Talk About It Have you ever seen a pantomime? If so, what was it? Did you enjoy it?

Features of a Pantomime Although each pantomime is different, there are things that lots of them have in common: • Pantomimes are funny, with lots of jokes to make the audience laugh. • Some of the humour is ‘slapstick’ – this is when actors will pretend to get hurt or have something bad happen to them, like a custard pie being put in their face. • They will have songs and dance routines. Some of the songs are included for the audience to join in with.

Features of a Pantomime • Many pantomimes have a character known as a ‘dame’. This is a male actor dressed up to play an older woman. A famous example of a pantomime dame is Widow Twankey from Aladdin. • Although each pantomime story is different, they usually focus on the hero defeating a villain and discovering his true love.

Features of a Pantomime • Some pantomimes will have a horse played by two people – one at the front and one at the back. • The principal boy is a young male character who was traditionally played by a female actor. • Pantomimes in bigger towns and cities will have celebrities acting as some of the main parts.

Famous Pantomime Phrases Even if you’ve never been to a pantomime, you’re sure to have heard some of the phrases that are commonly used in pantomimes: • "It's behind you!” This is when a character is trying to get away from the ‘baddie’. They can’t see them so the audience shout out, “It's behind you!”and the character turns around just as the baddie moves to another position on the stage. This can go on for a while. • "Oh no it isn't!" This encourages audience participation with characters on the stage. The character will say "Oh yes it is, " before the audience respond with "Oh no it isn't".

The History of Pantomimes have several different origins. In Tudor times, plays called masques were performed in the Royal court. These involved singing, dancing and acting. Another origin of pantomimes were the small acting companies that toured Italy and France in the 17 th Century. They would perform in market squares and fairgrounds performing plays based on traditional stories. This idea was brought to Britain in the 18 th Century with a mischievous character called Harlequin.

The History of Pantomimes The Victorian era brought in many of our current Christmas traditions. These include decorating Christmas trees, sending Christmas cards and pulling Christmas crackers. It was during this time that the Harlequin plays developed into productions similar to today’s pantomimes. They retold fairy tales, had a principle boy and had songs and rhymes to make the audience laugh. During the 1930 s and 1940 s, stars from radio shows started appearing in pantomimes (although television was invented in 1927, they didn’t become popular in the UK until the 1950 s).