[Magdalen] Please! Clap your hands!

[Jay Weigel]

Pantomime is different. It's not meant to be taken seriously.


On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 5:25 PM, Sally Davies <sally.davies at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've grown up with the British Pantomime tradition, in which the romantic
> male lead is traditionally played by a woman, as is the romantic female
> lead, and there's a "Dame" who is an older woman played by a man in drag.
>
> Pantomime is alive and well in Johannesburg where as it happens, the
> locally famous Panto director Janice Honeyman will be producing Peter Pan
> this Christmas season.
> http://www.joburgtheatre.com/en-GB/shows/peter%20pan/info From the
> pictures
> it looks as though Peter is a handsome adult man not a boy or a woman, but
> the Dame looks traditional as does the animal character played by two
> humans in one costume. The Panto will be broadcast on our TV over Christmas
> and I'll make sure not to miss it - but it's not the same as catching the
> atmosphere and the visual feast in the theatre. Not this year; but we are
> going to Cape Town later this month to see a much praised production of War
> Horse.
>
> Panto is full of slapstick humour, dreadful puns and gags to delight the
> kids, as well as pure theatre magic, the clever use of topical jokes, digs
> at political or showbiz figures, and recent musical hits as well as old
> favourites. And there's a risque undertone to much of the humour so that
> adults get it and laugh whilst the kids are oblivious. Another tradition is
> that the audience gets involved in warning good characters, "he's behind
> you!" It's also common, especially in England, for celebrities who are not
> actors to take on a Panto role, often as a suitor to the Dame or as a
> villain.
>
> I love it all including the "pantomime boy"!  One year, between jobs, Keith
> worked Sound production on a Honeyman pantomime ("Jack and the Beanstalk")
> and I ended up seeing the show over 30 times. I never got tired of it
> though the director, Honeyman's girlfriend at the time, was a
> total nightmare.
>
> Sally
>
> On Friday, 5 December 2014, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> > It's like grown women playing Hansel in H&G, or even worse, Amahl.
> >
> > However, for the "never grow up" Peter Pan, a grown-up seems okay.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Jim
> >
> >
>