Dragged up on stage

Look out behind you, it’s pantomime season, writes Liz Breslin.

Pantomime: a weird, unknown and anyway outdated genre? Oh no it isn’t! If you were tempted to respond to that with an "Oh yes it is!", then congratulations. You must have, at some point, been exposed to pantomime.

Most people, hearing the concept for the first time, could be forgiven imagining a stage show with silent figures communicating only through gestures.  And yes, that’s "mime". The reality of "panto" is very different. Based in part on the Italian "commedia dell’arte", pantomime gained popularity in Britain in the 17th century via Mummers Plays and harlequinades. It has been shipped to these shores since the late 1800s. James Cassius Williamson, with his travelling company based in Melbourne, started bringing lavish, spectacular pantomime shows over here in 1882.

An Otago Daily Times review from 1919 notes that "The J. C. Williamson pantomime, Goody Two Shoes, will be presented in His Majesty’s Theatre on Saturday afternoon. The season is for six nights with matinees next Saturday and Monday. Of this show, the critic of the Melbourne Argus writes as follows:- ‘The J.C. Williamson 1919 pantomime, Goody Two Shoes, has come, been seen and has conquered. In every respect it is a great show. It carries all before it with its spectacular charm and its Toyland scenes, with their undeniable appeal to children. Still further, should be noted the Kenna brothers’ clever aeroplane stunt, the reappearance of Mr Arthur Stigant as the Dame, the unique Toy Soldier of Mr Fred Walton and the refined grace of the new principal boy, Miss Dorothy Hastings."’

The various conventions highlighted in this review are still going strong. The dame (or dames in the case of Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters) is an integral panto character, cross-dressed in haute drag to the nines. S/he provides much-loved comic interaction with the audience. Plays on words and puns are interspersed with cheeky double entendre. Think Shrek, where both children and adults find something to laugh at and love. Don’t think Stephen Fry’s 2007 script for Cinderella at the Old Vic in  London, which was criticised for going too far into adult smut territory. It’s all about the kid in us all.

The Principal Boy is traditionally played by a girl in swashbuckling boots. Then there’s the villain, who gets booed at every entrance. Which is always from the audience’s right, or stage left, which was Hell in medieval morality play days: a good clue that he’s coming from and going back to a bad place.

And, of course, the villain gets his (it’s still generally a him) comeuppance, especially in the obligatory scene where he gets chased by something nasty that baits him. Cue the audience yelling, "Look behind you! He’s behi-i-i-i-i-nd you!".

Audience participation also involves joining in  songs and being asked up on to the stage. The  brilliant Hudson and Halls play had pantomime elements in that regard, as well as a transformation scene, another panto trope.

By far New Zealand’s most prolific professional pantomime penner (say that with a wig on at high speed 10 times, that’s the spirit!) would be Roger Hall. In 1977 he wrote his Cinderella panto script while the Burns Fellow at the University of Otago (Oh no he didn’t! Oh yes he did! Shush now.) and his pantos now run into double figures. In contrast to the massive professional box office churn of British panto (which in the 2016-17 season saw the usual round of celebrity star turns, 2.9 million tickets sold and a total box office income of just over £60 million, or $NZ116million), homegrown pantomime has often navigated the space between community theatre and professional production. Salesi Le’ota, of Playmarket, notes that "Circa is the only professional theatre in New Zealand that stages an annual pantomime but it has been very popular with community theatres, especially in the days  when every town had its own repertory and/or operatic."Certainly, community panto groups come and go around the country. Over the past few years, so Dame Google says, there have been fun community outings in Timaru and Arrowtown. A company called Operatunity brings a lunchtime panto round the country for the senior market. The Fortune theatre reprised Roger Hall’s Cinderella in 2006, billing it as "A fantastic return to classic panto by Roger Hall — not seen in Dunedin since 1978!!!" (Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is! Oh, are you tired of this yet?)

Then there’s Queenstown’s long-running Shotover Jet Christmas Show. Though it’s not called panto, (and held in the Events Centre, not in a jet boat) all the ingredients are there. Lisa Moore, who co-created this year’s show (you’ve missed it, it was last weekend), The Twelve Bells of Christmas, with Margaret O’Hanlon from a concept conceived by the ever-supportive Jan Maxwell, believes it’s important "to have something special for the families to enjoy in what can be a hectic and stressful time. They can come together, sit back and enjoy a family outing. Put a smile on all their faces."

The audience participation and interaction comes thick and fast.

"We have a sneaky granny who disguises herself. Only the audience know who she really is."

Lisa says she’s "been dramatic since birth" and acting since the age of 6, with a first role in the ensemble for the Invercargill Repertory Society’s Wind in the Willows. It’s like that, panto. A gateway theatre experience, perhaps, for a life treading the boards, or an inspiration to try more and different kinds of shows.

And this season little old Wanaka gets not one but two Cinderella shows. Well, it is the most popular panto story of all time. Dance Wanaka finished November doing Once Upon a Time with Cinderella and Snow White. Classic panto behaviour, mixing fairy stories. And the Wanaka Pantomimers are performing Cindy and the Villanelles from December 21-23, as close to Christmas as they can, with hopefully all the cheesy convention boxes ticked. Producer Richard Elvey says: "It used to be that panto was a thing for Boxing Day and beyond but, like the rest of the Christmas preparations, they seem to get earlier every year. As a Londoner who grew up with panto, it’s really exciting to bring a bit of British tradition here and it’s good fun adding a Kiwi element to make it fit."

(Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is! Oh for goodness sake.) In keeping with this tradition, this year’s Circa panto, Peter Pan, by Pinky Agnew and Lorae Parry, which, true to form, includes wind jokes galore, a breakdancing dog and  Winston Tweeters, the ferryman (honestly!), runs into the New Year, January 2-13, prolonging the laughs and fun of pantomime.

- Liz Breslin lives and writes in Hawea Flat. Cindy and the Villanelles is her first attempt at a pantomime script. 

 

The show

• Cindy and the Villanelles plays at the Lake Wanaka Centre,  Ardmore St, Wanaka, December 21-23.