Pantomime or "panto" is a uniquely British form of entertainment. An essential part of the Traditional British Christmas season, panto is performed throughout the UK in scores of large and small theaters by professional, semi-professional, and amateur drama groups. Annually around Christmas, hundreds of thousands of children and adults attend these popular plays.
The traditional British Christmas Panto has its roots in the crude comedies of ancient Greece, the silent masked plays of Rome, medieval English morality plays and the 19th century French mimed Pierrot plays.
It is essentially a morality play based upon a children's fairy story (eg Cinderella) demonstrating the triumph of good over evil and using all the elements of theatre to illustrate the point. More recent productions have deviated from the traditional fairy story to reflect increasing sophistication, but the essence remains the same.
To encourage the audience the moral message is concealed within an all-encompassing comic script, written to appeal to the child in all of us, with the issues and moral choices clearly defined
A unique aspect of panto is its form of audience participation. Audience members are encouraged to boo-and-hiss "baddies," warn the "goodies" of impending danger ("It's behind you!") and talk back to the actors. (When an evildoer says "Oh, no he won't!" the entire audience knows to yell back in unison "Oh, yes he will!") Actors toss sweets and confetti from the stage, lunge into the audience for "volunteers," and start conversations with individual audience members. The audience is expected to participate - various characters will seek the audience's help, asking questions or claiming inability to sing or shout loud enough on their own. The wholehearted and loud responce of the audience is vital - the louder the better!
The basic characters:
- The Hero (male lead, traditionally played by a woman)
- The Heroine (female romantic lead)
- The Dame (female comic lead, traditionally played by a man)
- Spirit of Good (eg Good Fairy)
- Spirit of Evil (eg wicked King)
- Everyman / Fool (stupid/naughty, but is won over to Good)