PANTOMIME # 2

 

Pantomime is a traditional Christmas and New Year entertainment unique and peculiar to the British theatre.
Pantomime origins can be traced back to the 16th and 17th century Italian improvised comic drama called the Commedia Dell'arte.
Punch and Judy, Harlequinade and the French tradition of mime also have their origins in the commedia Dell'arte.
With its roots deep in the harlequin tradition of the 18th century combined with the music hall burlesque of the 19th forged what we know today as pantomime where an actress always plays the part of principal boy and an actor always plays the dame.
The Pantomimes used traditional fairy tales like Mother Goose Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Red Riding Hood in which they wove into the story political satire, parodies of popular figures and slapstick thus providing something for everyone.
The great thing about Panto is that it is the one part of British culture which refuses to embrace Political Correctness, thank god.
By the end of every Panto virtue is rewarded, love conquers all, good defeats evil and everyone lives happily ever after.

HOOK

 

There is something puzzling me

As it doesn’t say in the book

Before his hand was taken

What did they call captain hook

 

It’s a difficult one to answer

Maybe he was evil captain fist

Or was he called captain two hands

Not really a very menacing list

 

And was it simply irony, mere chance

Or was his accident planned

For if not for the crocodile

He would have remained a deck hand

THE FAMILIAR SHOUT AT A PANTOMIME

 

The familiar shout at a pantomime

Is “it’s behind you”

But if the actor is a former great

We shout “it’s beneath you”