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routines and conventions are as comforting as Christmas pudding. There are only about seven or eight different stories which are endlessly recycled (including Cinderella – the most popular of them all – Dick Whittington, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Peter Pan – which is not strictly a pantomime but is still much loved). It’s always the same, but just a little bit different depending on the guest stars, where the theatre is and what’s been in the news recently. We love the pantomime – the terrible jokes, the booing and hissing of the moustachioed villain, the silly pantomime horse or cow, the


scene, Harlequin would magically transform objects and parts of the set by whacking them with his wooden bat or ‘slapstick’. The bat (which also doubled as a sword) had a hinged flap which made a very loud noise when ‘slapped’, giving a great effect when used to ‘punish’ fellow actors. It also acted as a clearly audible cue to technicians in the wings who had to activate a prop or quickly change a scene. In today’s pantomimes, when a drummer in the house band hits his snare drum just as a character trips and falls, it’s a direct throwback to the original slapstick.


By the 1880s, in an effort to sustain interest in pantomimes (which, after all, were fairly repetitive), theatre managers began to invite music-hall stars to make guest appearances. Add together all these elements and the pantomime of today emerges. In the modern pantomime, the


transformation scene and the happy ending. In March 2011 UH Press is publishing a new book, The Politics of the Pantomime: Regional Identity in the Theatre, 1860–1900, by Jill A Sullivan. This is a study of provincial pantomime in the second half of the nineteenth-century which looks in detail at the way local theatres drew audiences and kept them coming back each year by satirising local figures and celebrating local successes. It’s published in conjunction with the Society for Theatre Research which supports research into theatre history (www. str.org.uk).


The Drury Lane Theatre in London is often thought of as the first home of English panto as it was one of the first to stage pantomimes as we now think of them and worked hard, year on year, to create ever more lavish and inventive scenes. But, as Jill Sullivan’s book shows, pantomime thrived in the provinces where it had greater distance from the Lord Chamberlain’s censorship office and thus could often get away with risqué political satire that the London theatres had to avoid. The tradition of having the hero played by a girl is another inheritance from the Victorian stage which was once thought rather


Further reading...


UH Press co-publishes scholarly theatre history with the Society for Theatre Research, including:


Lilian Baylis: A biography by Elizabeth Schafer (Shortlisted for the Theatre Book Prize 2006)


Entertainment,


Propaganda, Education: Regional theatre in Germany and Britain between 1918 and 1945 by Anselm Heinrich (‘a tour de force of comparative criticism and investigative theatre research’ – Modern Language Review)


Off-centre stages: Fringe Theatre at the Open Space and the Round House, 1968-1983 by Jinnie Schiele


risqué: it offered an opportunity for gentlemen in the audience to enjoy the sight of a young lady’s legs in closely fitting breeches, something they rarely glimpsed in the days of crinolines and floor- length dresses. It seems extraordinary that a form of slapstick comedy should have survived for centuries and still be hugely enjoyed by ordinary people of all ages. But it’s the crucial combination of reassuring sameness and inspired adaptability that has kept pantomime alive. So when you next see a panto advertised, don’t miss out. But take care not to sit in the front row in case you get squirted by a water pistol or dragged on stage for a little ritual humiliation. You know you love it really! f�


For more information on all UH Press books visit www.herts. ac.uk/uhpress


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Photography: Istockphoto


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