Panto is short for Pantomime. There are lots of stories that are used regularly - Puss In Boots, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Dick Whittington, Peter Pan and, of course, the one I saw yesterday, Aladdin. I assume everybody knows the stories. For Panto - a kids' Christmas show - the whole thing is camped up. There's music, of course. The hero is played by a woman (the Principal Boy) and there is always an ugly old woman played by a man in bright clothes.
Pantomime Dame
Principal Boy
A pantomime cow or horse is often in evidence. There is always a baddie who is hissed and booed. There is always an opportunity to shout out "He's behind you!" and a character always gives the audience the chance to contradict him/her - "Oh yes he is" "Oh no he isn't".
If I never see another it will be too soon.
No, I don't believe we have anything like that here!
ReplyDeletehmm, looks cool tho! sorry you'[ve had an overload of them...
ReplyDeletei've seen similar things, and some kids at our church do them, but we call them human videos. we did them in college all the time. but they aren't anything near as professional looking as those pics you have up.
The one we went to see, and those the pictures are from, are professional productions. But lots of amateur dramatic organisations put them on, too. Lots of big stars of stage, screen and the music world do a panto at Christmas. Most towns have a panto in their theatre.
ReplyDeleteI believe David Soul did one the other year (he lives here now) and his sidekick Paul Michael Glaser is doing one this year as far as I know.
I hated these things as a kid. When a friend of mine dragged me to one a few years back because some oap star she was infatuated with was in it, I actually thought I'd died and gone to hell!
ReplyDeleteOAP star? Well, he probably is now, but then, he was a SOAP star - DOH!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds interesting. Too bad we don't have them here in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait. I'm thinking of that Monty Python sketch with the pantomime horse. Now I get it! I had no idea what that meant before. Thanks for clearing it up.
I Love panto's..they appeal to the child in me :-)
ReplyDeleteHannah's boyfriend is an actor with an amateur group..he's playing a dame this year..a 6ft7 one..apparently he often plays them...something about his size making it look even funnier than normal
So does this mean that they don't have any lines? They just mime everything? Wow, what kind of fresh hell is that?! No, we definitely don't have stuff like that here. Just plays, ballet, opera. I have seen references to "panto" in books by British authors but I was never quite sure what it was. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteSo I wonder if we can expect VDO to play a dame any time soon? LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they don't have pantos here in the US.
ReplyDeleteOh, JoJo, if only they DIDN'T have any lines.
ReplyDelete