In Search of Lost Pantomimes

Poster for The Fair One With the Golden Locks, Theatre Royal Nottingham, 1876 (Image courtesy of ourtheatreroyal.org)

Pantomime season. That strange and unique part of the British theatre calendar when jokes (and some comedians) leave their retirement homes for their Christmas outing.

This December, the Theatre Royal Nottingham, will once again be presenting its annual Pantomime.  A traditional festive spectacular that has been part of the venue since it staged its very first Panto in 1865.

Like any other theatre, the Pantomime is vital for bringing in more theatre-goers and that crucial box office income.

The 2021 Panto has even more significance this year, as theatre doors remained firmly closed in 2020 with the ongoing COVID pandemic.  Venues like Nottingham Playhouse were able to engage audiences virtually with their production of Cinderella, but Panto really does demand a live audience to loudly boo and cheer en masse.

So this year, there will be palpable relief, still mixed with some anxiety, from producers, managers, performers and technicians when the house lights fall, the pit band strikes up its first notes and the audience positively buzzes with anticipation.

However, the 2021 Panto is doubly important for the Theatre Royal.  Yes, those excited families will be returning, but this season’s offering is Robin Hood, that rare beast, a Pantomime that dares to stray from the now small offering of titles that are served out by theatres each year.

Robin Hood is not a new Pantomime title, but it was last performed at the Theatre Royal in 1924.  As a Panto character the Sherwood Forest outlaw can often be found in Babes in the Wood, where the Robin Hood legend and associated characters, such as Maid Marion and the Sheriff, have been combined with the traditional folk story. 

But even this title, whilst popular for many years, had its last outing at the Theatre Royal in 1992. Perhaps, its subject matter of two abandoned children in a forbidding forest makes Babes in the Wood too dark for modern sensibilities.

Poster for Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood, Theatre Royal Nottingham, 1992 (Image courtesy of ourtheatreroyal.org)

Therefore, what we are now seeing is a relatively small palate of Pantomime titles offered by venues and production companies each year.  Cinderella, Dick Whittington, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty being the modern favourites. 

In recent years, Peter Pan has also joined this list.  An oddity in that the story originated in the twentieth century, as opposed to being rooted in traditional fairy-tales, but has now become adapted to fit the Panto format.  By the way, that spinning sound you hear whenever you watch Peter Pan as a Pantomime is just J.M. Barrie in his grave. [1]

This reduction of titles is not new.  In 1882 journalist W. Davenport Adams complained of the limited number of Pantomimes being performed, but then, as well as the above shows, there was Little Bo-Beep, Goody Two Shoes and Red Riding Hood, amongst others [2]

In 1884, The Era newspaper published a Pantomime census of shows being performed that season revealing titles such as Jack and Jill, St George and the Dragon and Little Jack Horner. [3]

The list of Pantos at the Theatre Royal Nottingham since 1865 endorses that late Victorian census, plus revealing a wealth of no longer performed shows, but whose titles are familiar to us from childhood tales and folklore, such as The House That Jack Built, Sinbad the Sailor and The Forty Thieves.

Poster for Sinbad the Sailor, Theatre Royal Nottingham, 1889 (Image courtesy of ourtheatreroyal.org)

Of course the choice of titles will never remain the same, as the popularity of certain stories will always wane.  Pantomimes such as Blue Beard and Robinson Crusoe are unlikely to surface again, due to their misogynist and colonial subject matter.

Folklorist Steve Roud, describes Panto “as a strange dramatic beast”, [4] highlighting how it has never been a fixed entity. If it was, we would still be watching the Commedia dell’Arte performances of Harlequin and the clowning style of Joseph Grimaldi, the eighteenth century Pantomime star and innovator who Andrew McConnell Scott describes as “the genesis of the modern idea of comedy.” [5]

Those influences are still there in the 21st century Panto, but why has the title choice declined so much in recent years?  Who is dictating what story appears on stage at Christmas?  Audiences or producers?

I think it is a little of both. The rise of the Disney Princess and the overall Disneyfication of Pantomime has seen titles dictated by this popularity.  Interesting to note that the nineteenth century Grimm Brothers tale of Snow White didn’t become part of the Pantomime canon until after the release of the iconic 1937 Disney film.

Theatre producers and programmers note these audience favourites and with increased staging costs to produce bigger and more spectacular shows, as well as the fee of your TV star to top the bill, it is understandable that risks are no longer being taken when it comes to choice of title.  Why gamble on staging Little Jack Horner when your rival theatre is putting on Aladdin? Pantomime is a very competitive business, but the limited storytelling is not allowing the genre to evolve and thrive as it should.

There are those daring to take Panto in bold directions, such as Above the Stag’s Dick Whittington: A New Dick in Town and The Old Red Lion Theatre’s horror Panto It’s Behind You! I’m intrigued by the King’s Head Theatre production of Beowulf: An Epic Panto.  Grendel’s mother clearly being the ultimate Pantomime dame.

However, as Simon Sladen, Senior Curator at the V&A points out, the overwhelming aspect of Panto is “a prevalence of tried-and-tested stories featuring tried-and-tested stars”, with producers not fully utilising the last eighteen months and the enforced pause in proceedings to really try to reinvigorate the genre. [6]

Several years ago, a now retired theatre manager informed me that “there was no educational value in Pantomime”.  He couldn’t have been more wrong.  As well as often being the very first trip a child will make to a theatre, either with family or school, Pantomime can teach us so much in terms of the history and evolution of theatre and performance. It was from talking to teachers in 2004 that I developed a Panto TIE programme called Clowns, Jokes & Girls as Blokes and related resource material, now available online, that children were able to find out more about Panto heritage.

This learning programme was also an opportunity to discover and share our traditional stories and folklore, as evidenced by those lost Victorian titles. Stories like The Fair One with the Golden Locks are also based in the popular worlds of fairies, adventure and princesses.  It doesn’t always have to be Cinderella. Look at The Theatre Chipping Norton staging Rapunzel this year.

Some would argue, does it matter what the title is, when all Pantos are the same anyway?  The story is irrelevant as long as you have your comic routines, cross-dressing, songs, some risqué gags for the grown-ups and a bit of love interest.

True, the stock format is key to Panto’s continuing success.  It is perhaps one of the few performance genres where we go knowing exactly what to expect.

You only have to read the Book of Words for The House That Jack Built, the Theatre Royal’s first Panto in 1865 to see that the format and structure remains virtually the same today.  Except then, the topical jokes revolved around the end of the American Civil War and Prime Minister John Russell.  Victorians watching a Panto today really wouldn’t be too surprised by what they saw.

Page from Book of Words for The House That Jack Built, Theatre Royal Nottingham, 1865. (image courtesy of ourtheatreroyal.org)

However, the strength of a good Panto still relies on telling an equally good story.  And these lost titles are terrific stories. Panto simply shouldn’t just be a glorified variety show where each turn comes on and does their bit.

As a theatre historian, I would relish the opportunity to see a fully-fledged ‘lost’ Panto on stage.  I would even love to see a full-on Harlequinade, as produced by pioneer Pantomime producer John Rich.  But even I realise that this may not be the crowd-pleaser it once was.

I know only too well that venues are still hurting due to the pandemic, with audiences uncertain about booking. Compounded even more by the emergence last month of the Omicron Variant. Therefore, programming a well-known title now must seem like an absolute no-brainer.

However, one can only hope that the Theatre Royal Nottingham and Oxford Playhouse with Robin Hood, Greenwich Theatre staging Queen of Hearts, Grand Opera House York’s production of Dick Turpin Rides Again and other pockets of resistance may signal to venues the possibilities of sharing these traditional stories, rather than just reaching once again for that familiar glass slipper.

[1] Peter Pan Panto - 4th Dec 2pm - Chrysalis Theatre Milton Keynes (chrysalismk.co.uk)

[2] Richards, J. (2015) The Golden Age of Pantomime: Slapstick, Spectacle and Subversion in Victorian England.  London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Roud, S. (2006) The English Year. London: Penguin Books.

[5] Scott, A.M. (2009) The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi. Edinburgh: Canongate Books.

[6] Morgan, F. (2021) Behind Us? How Panto Rebounded from 2020’s Winter of No Content. The Stage, 25 November.