The Pantomime

What can I say? Bad jokes. Incredibly bad jokes. Which were so bad and so predicable they were funny. Singing, lots of it. Dancing, yup, that too. So for those who have never seen a pantomime, what on earth is it?

It is a show, singing, dancing, ridiculous jokes, no plot, a hero, heroine and a bad guy. The audience becomes part of the show. So when the villain comes on the scene, the audience boos and hisses. At one stage one of the actors had asked the audience to watch over his fish, and if anyone came to steal his fish, that we were to let him know by shouting: “Wishee Washee, Fishy Wishy” (and yup, that’s for real). So when the villain attempted to steal his fish, the audience was a bit slow in warning him and he came out before we had a chance to cue him. So he looks at the audience, tells them that we had been a bit slow, goes back, and we start again. It was hilarious.

Apparently in every pantomime there is one character played by the opposite sex i.e. a man playing a woman or vice versa. In this one, a man played the central character, a woman, Widow Twanky.

According to my book, there are 4 major elements in a pantomime: music (both singing and dancing), comedy (including slapstick) , audience participation and a traditional story of good and evil.

Our seats were right at the front and we were warned that we were likely to get wet, and at one stage M had his coat wrapped around him and he warned me that this was the point where we were likely to get wet. We didn’t. The funny bit about that scene was where Wishee Washee was being assaulted by various forms of fluid and one of the children came out with a pie, carried very wobbly, and we were waiting for Wishee Washee to wear the pie. He didn’t. You could hear the audience settle and then about 5 minutes later, just long enough for the audience to forget, Wishee Washee wore the pie, much to the audience delight and laughter.

This pantomime was Aladdin and was totally different from any version I’ve ever heard, although I must admit I am a bit weak on my Arabian Tales. The story according to this pantomime, and apparently this is one of the standard English pantomimes, Aladdin is a friend of Wishee Washee and his mother, the Widow Twanky. The Widow Twanky owns the local laundry service. Aladdin falls in love with the Emperor’s Daughter, who cannot marry him cause he is poor. The villain, Abananzer, wants the money from the cave and the lamp, but can’t go and get it himself cause only a brave and honest man is allowed in the cave, so he has to trick Aladdin into giving him the lamp. And so the story progresses from the audience being told that we are not allowed to look at Princess Jasmine or we will all have out heads cut off. So there is much fun amongst the audience, both children and adults, to look at the princess and yet not look at her so we could see what she was up to. To the final where the good guys win out and the local bobby takes Abananzer off to wherever he goes to learn to behave himself and everyone lives happily ever after.

I found it interesting that usually polite, apologetic and adapted Englishers were so free in this instance to shout and hiss and boo at the villain, and to shout stupid things like “Wishee Washee Fishy Wishee”, to one of the actors. The whole pantomime was hilarious.

Including the main characters, there were also 10 children involved in the production, singing as a chorus and I presume, learning their pantomime skills for later in their lives. At one stage they got 10 children from the audience to come up on stage and help, and these children all went home with a little present. At another point in the story they called from a member of the audience to come and sing and the man who they chose just happened to be the little girl sitting next to me’s teacher. So even one of the local primary school teachers was allowed to get involved and behave like an idiot – which he quite happily did.

I loved it. It was silly. There was no plot. The singing was great. The audience loved the whole experience and that included me and M neither of us having every been to one before. I don’t think the Aussies here will understand. I think if anyone had told me, my response would have been, no way, you’ve got to be kidding. It was great.

I wasn't allowed to take photos, so, sorry, no pictures this time.

Madeleine

Saturday, 29 November 2008