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He's Behind You! A Brief Look at Panto in DMU Special Collections

It's the time of year when you might be planning a festive trip to the theatre to see one of hundreds of pantomimes performed across the country over the Christmas season. 

The Commedia dell'Arte

Pantomime originates in the 16th century Italian Commedia dell'Arte. These entertainments involved travelling troupes of actors performing dances, music, acrobatics and mimes using easy-to-recognise stock characters - the frustrated lovers, the foolish old man, the downtrodden, sneaky servant.

Painting of Commedia dell'Arte characters Harlequin and Columbine by Giovanni Domenico Ferretti.

Commedia dell'Arte became popular across Europe, each country adding their own twists to the formula. In England, theatres needed a special licence to perform a play with dialogue, limiting the range of spoken plays that could be performed. Theatre-owners therefore embraced a format which took place in mime. In the 1730s John Rich was able to fund the construction of the Covent Garden Theatre using profits from his Harlequin performances in which he danced but never spoke. He went on to originate 'slapstick' in performances full of physical comedy involving a wooden bat that he used to hit pieces of the stage set, changing the scenery.

Programme for the Penarth Players present Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

Meanwhile at the Drury Lane Theatre David Garrick introduced new stories based on folklore including Dick Whittington, Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood. Panto today still uses familiar fairy-tale or folkloric plots. In the early 19th century pantomimes developed grander scenery and stage effects, large casts and an extravaganza feel that was very popular with audiences.

Introducing dialogue

In 1843 the Theatres Act lifted restrictions on dialogue, opening up pantomime to groan-worthy puns and wordplay as well as the audience participation we expect today! The fairy-tale plots could now be mixed with satirical commentary on current events. New 'exotic' locations were featured by adapting fairy-tales from across the world, such as Aladdin or Ali Baba.

A list of pantomime performances for 1867, from the London Illustrated News.

By the end of the 19th century audiences could expect a pantomime to last for hours, with huge casts, elaborate scenery, fanciful costumes and clever stage machinery making exciting special effects. Drury Lane Theatre was known to spend up to £10,000 on their shows! The connection with Christmas was well-established as many pantos now opened on Boxing Day and were considered a family outing for the festive season.

Gender switching

Gender switching has been a part of panto since at least 1837, when actor Lucy Vestris played the male hero in 'Puss in Boots'. This allowed her to wear a costume considered risque for the time - tights with shorts similar to a circus performer. It became part of the subversive panto tradition to have a woman playing the 'principal boy', with many illustrations focusing on the 'revealing' nature of the tight costumes.

Dick Whittington has an obviously female silhouette in this panto programme illustration.

June Southorn won a prize at the Leicester College of Arts Junior Crafts section dance with her 'Pantomime Prince' costume in 1936.

Of course men or boys playing female parts had long been a theatrical reality when women were barred from the stage. The tradition of the 'dame', a man playing an older woman, was therefore a natural addition to the pantomime. In 1806 Samuel Simmons played Mother Goose while Window Twankey was introduced in 1861.

BBC Radio Leicester presenter Martin Ballard as Widow Twankey in Aladdin at Loughborough Town Hall, 2003. The image appears alongside Ballard's column in the match programme for Leicester Riders vs Milton Keynes Lions

Celebrity Cameos

The 19th century theatre directors began to hire music hall stars to perform in their pantomimes. This proved a money-spinner and the actors often incorporated the catch-phrases or comic routines that had made them famous in the music hall. Celebrities appearing in panto has become a staple of modern theatre with comedy stars and soap actors usually topping the bill!

The Bournemouth panto in 1991 featured celebrity guests Su Pollard, Matthew Kelly and comic cat Garfield!

Subverting the Format

Once panto became a traditional part of the theatrical institution, it was inevitable that the format would be adapted, twisted and parodied. In this example the play 'Hooray for Daisy' features a village putting on a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk, a panto-within-a-play.

The programme for Hooray for Daisy! by Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds, performed at the Theatre Royal, Bristol.

These playscripts by playwright Bryony Lavery show how the panto could be reclaimed as a subversive, satirical medium. In her 'Peter Pan', most of the cast turn out to be women dressed up as men - including Peter (Petra) Pan and Captain Hook! In 'Sleeping Beauty' patriarchal and hetero-normative fairytale tropes are mocked and revealed to be nonsense.

Extract from Bryony Lavery's panto 'Peter Pan' where Peter is revealed to be a girl. The Darling children have two mummies who follow them to Neverland.

Character list for Bryony Lavery and Nona Shepphard's pantomine 'Sleeping Beauty'.

Resources used to prepare this blog:

• "It's behind you!" A look into the history of pantomime at https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/features/pantomime/
• The story of pantomime at https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-story-of-pantomime
• S/004 Leicester Riders match programmes at: https://specialcollections.catalogue.dmu.ac.uk/records/S/004/A/022/007
• TAP theatre programme collection, info at https://specialcollections.catalogue.dmu.ac.uk/records/TAP
• London Illustrated News, available in the Special Collections reading room
• Bryony Lavery collection, info at https://specialcollections.catalogue.dmu.ac.uk/records/D/023

 With thanks to Frontrunner Eleanor Hughes for assistance with research for this blog post.