entertainment
"Pantomime has everything theatrical � song,
dance, verse, slapstick, soliloquy, audience
participation, spectacle, cross-dressing and a good
plot, strong on morality and romance... What more
could you want for a family outing?"
Sir Ian McKellen
T
he pantomime, that peculiarly British
annual tradition, has become as much
part of our Christmas as Santa Claus and
Christmas gifts.
The origins of pantomime however, don't lie on
our shores but in ancient Rome and subsequently
16th century Italy with the `Commedia dell'Arte'.
This was a popular form of travelling street theatre
using a humorous improvisational mixture of
music, dance, acrobatics and all kinds of
buffoonery which contributed to the comic effects.
The Commedia troupes, often family-based, would
perform stories involving caricatures of many of the
stock social types of the time. Some of these
characters later evolved into the lovers Harlequin
and Columbine, Pantaloon her father, and
Pedrolino, his rascally servant.
Although the Commedia characters first
began to appear in English plays around 1660, it
was actor and manager John Rich who introduced
the Harlequin to the British stage in the early
eighteenth century at London's Theatre Royal
Covent Garden. The Harlequinade, considered
the forerunner of the British pantomime, had
a standard plot consisting of a pursuit of the
lovers Harlequin and Columbine by
Pantaloon aided by Pedrolino. Harlequin was
considered to have magical powers and
carried a wooden stick, which was alternately
a wand or a weapon with a hinged flap,
making a loud `slapping' noise for theatrical
effect as well as initiating scene changes,
and became known as a slapstick.
By the late Victorian era the
Harlequinade had been developed
into the dramatized fairytale, the
most popular ones including
'Jack and the Beanstalk', 'Dick
Whittington', 'Cinderella' and
'Mother Goose', and was
The Christmas season
is upon us once again
with the usual focus on
festive fun and
entertainment and as
always, there is a wide
variety of family
entertainment in
theatres across the isle.
Deni Jirotka reports.
Thigh slapping and
6 Isle Magazine

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