It um… pantomime actually originated in Italy um… but when it came to Britain um… of course we've got this wealth of variety and music hall tradition, it became um… a sort of Christmas variety show. But telling, as you know um… children's stories.
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Jackie: For this week's podcastsinenglish.com we're talking about a very British winter entertainment, and that's the pantomime. With me is David. Hi, David.
David: Hello, Jackie.
Jackie: David um… we associate pantomimes with the winter. It's not just December, is it?
David: No. No, pantomimes can start um… well, ideally they start when the kids break up from school. And they go through to… they can go through to January, February, I did a pantomime once that went through to the beginning of March.
Jackie: Oh right. Now some people are going to be listening and wondering what is a pantomime. So it's a kind of play, isn't it? But there’s more to it than that.
David: Yes. It um… pantomime actually originated in Italy um… but when it came to Britain um… of course we've got this wealth of variety and music hall tradition, it became um… a sort of Christmas variety show. But telling, as you know um… children's stories.
Jackie: So… so basically then a pantomime tends to be a children's story with people dressing up…
David: Yes
Jackie: …there's often singing?
David: Oh there's singing, and there's dancing um… there is er… hopefully in a good pantomime, there is something for everybody, so there is a level that the aud… the adults can get um… that they can appreciate but then there's lots of silly stuff for the kids, you know, there’ll be… there'll be um… comedy routines um… slapstick. And you'll have ghosts and crocodiles.
Jackie: It's action packed, then.
David: Oh yes. It is a very underrated form of um… theatre because to do pantomime properly you really need a lot of skills…
Jackie: Right
David: …particularly if you are playing the lead character. You've got to be able to sing and dance and tell jokes.
Jackie: And… and am I right in saying that there's… there’s kind of key characters that always appear in the different stories. I mean um… I'm trying to think um… men dressed up as women for example.
David: Oh yes, you see this is… this is quite unique, no other form of theatre anywhere in the world um… does this. I've had pantomimes where… where visitors have come from America and have just sat there and just cannot understand why um… the hero of the piece is played by a girl um… mother, the dame, is played by a man um… there is a cow, dressed, two dancers dressed in a cow’s skin, you know, it's all this cross-dressing. They've tried to do pantomimes like Cinderella using men playing men and women playing women and it doesn't work, you can't. Men have to play the Ugly Sisters, women can't do it, that's the tradition. And there are all sorts of traditions about pantomime because ultimately it's about good triumphing over evil, that's the point. And there is a very strict rule that stage left is evil, stage right is good. So the baddy, and I always play the baddy, always have done, would never come on from the right hand side because that's the good area.
Jackie: So if you're in the audience and you… you've seen a lot of pantomimes depending on what side the character comes on they know instantly whether this is a good character or a bad character.
David: Yes, yes. And also the… the costume gives it away a lot.
Jackie: Right
David: When you're striding around in black leather and a whip that does rather tell… tell the audience that you're up to no good [laughs]
Jackie: Well, I think that just sounds absolutely wonderful so I think anybody who's listening, who's in the UK, really, really try and catch a pantomime for the season. Thank you, David.
David: Thank you, Jackie
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