Pantomime-
The definition of pantomime is a theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, which involves music, topical jokes, comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story and is usually produced around Christmas.
Elements to pantomime can include
- slapstick comedy (slapstick meaning-comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions and embarrassing events)
(The term slapstick originally came from John Richs haliquin act, his harliquin used to use the bat to knock down the scenery and change it.)
- songs
- dances
- special effects
- a story line of good versus evil
- gender role reversal
- facial expressions
- body language
- Back and forward communication for example “oh no he isnt, oh yes he is” between the audience and actors
whilst on the Internet doing reasearch into pantomime I came across this website/article that i have linked below and added a screenshot…
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-story-of-pantomime#:~:text=Pantomime%20has%20its%20roots%20in,in%20clothes%20made%20of%20patches.
In this article it states that pantomime has its roots in ‘commedia dell’Arte’, a 16th Century Italian entertainment that used forms of entertainment such as acrobatics, music, tumbling, dance and a cast of mischievous stock characters. From this article I have also learnt that pantomimes were set to music without speach simular to how mimes perform.
(Stock charecters- are charecters in naratives that are widley know across a range of different naratives.)
One of the original pantomime characters was Harlequin “a quick-witted miscreant who carried a magic bat, wore a mask and dressed in clothes made of patches” Harlequin who was most famously played by John Rich going back to the 17th century.
In 1732 John Rich build Convent Garden Theatre (The Theatre Royal, Convent Garden) based in Regency london. It first opened its doors on the 7th of Decembee 1732.
Another Actor and manager at the time who managed and worked at Drury Lane Theatre David Garrick shocked audiences with a speaking harliquin.
He hired one of John Riches students to pen new stories for him incomperating stories like Robin Hood, Dick Whittington and The Children of the Wood in some of them. This paved the way for more domestic stories and less clsssical.
It wasnt until the 1840s, 1843 to be precise until restrictions were lifted that alowed any theatre without a royal patent ( A Royal Patent is a legal document issued by a monarch granting a title, right or office) to preform a play with spoken dialogue jokes, chase scenes and participation with the audience were all introduced to pantomime. Dames, principal boys, fairytale characters and magical animals were all also introduced to pantomime. Pantomime was the opened up to a whole new ‘ball game’ bringing together fairy tales and ‘modern day’ social life.
In the late 19th centuary pantomimes that were preformed in the finest london theatres could go on for up to five hours! They were also traditionally performed on boxing day hence pantomimes being seasonal and part of modern day christmas traditions.
Following on from pantomime traditions it is traditional that goodies or good guys enter from stage right ( audiences left) and baddies or bad guys enter from stage left (audiences right). This is because the left side is supposedly like hell and all things evil and the right signafies heaven and all things good. This goes back all the way to medevil mystery plays.
What is a pantomime dame? A pantomime dame is an important and traditional role in british pantomime. A dame is a man dressed in drag playing the role of a female. They can usually be either very camp or men acting butch dressed in womans clothing. A dame is a very exaggerated woman character played by a male very obviously.
What is a principal boy? Is a main character rolled genrally played by a girl dressed in male clothing.
The use of gender swapping i.e dames being played by males and princepal boys being played by females goes all the way back to the victorian era as early as 1837! A actress called Lucy Eliza Vestris played a breeches role in Planches production of Puss in Boots at the Olympic Theatre.
However men have always played the role of females as women were not alowed to act in theatres as they were banned until after 1660.
Music hall preformers such as singers, dancers and musicians were introduced to pantomime in the late 60’s bringing alot more energy and pasaz to what was formally a well thought out production
Who is the target audience? In pantomime the target audience is traditonally young children, As pantomime involved alot of back of forward between the characters such as the dame, snow white, evil queen and the hunter. However it can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
Pantomime is a very back and forward between the audience and actors performance where it is our jobs to ensure that the audience gets involved children and adults alike.
Many well known people such as celebrities get involved in pantos on a regular basis and it is a yearly tradition across the UK where many many pantos are performormed uo and down the country. Performers act as light and silly, childlike as they can as this is a seasonal show.
The History Of Snow White-
Where does Snow White Originate from?
It orginates from a 19th centuary german fairy/folk tale that was published by german brothers the Brothers Grimm. They were known for their fairy tales/ folk tales and published ‘grimms fairy tales that contained snow white as story 53. They also wrote other classics such and cinderella and rumpelstiltskin.
It has been questioned wether or not snow white is based on a real life person namingly Margarete von Waldeck a countess from the 1500’s and her supposed lover Philip the second of spain. At that time in history politics were very important and she was supposedly poisened when the countess was young due to the alagations. Coincidentially she also supposedly had a bad relationship with her step mother.
Further more to this suggestion in the same town of the above countess (Wildungen) were copper mines, young children had to work in said mines and as a result of malnutrition and inadequate working conditions suffered stunts in relation to their growths and were subsequently dubbed and reffered too as ‘poor dwarfs’
However a study group in Lohr disagrees with the above claim about to origins of the real snow white and instead puts forward their belief that Snow White is actually based on a lady who was named Maria Sophia Von Erthal, who was born in Lohr, Barvaria, On the 15th of June 1729.
Her father was called Prince Philip Christoph Von Erthal was a landowner and his wife Baroness Von Battendorff. The Baroness died and the Prince went on to marry Miss Claudia Elisabeth Maria Von Venningen, Countess of Reichenstein. Who reportedly did not like her new stepchildren.
Whilst living in this castle in Lohr that is now a museum their was a reportedly magic mirror whom the Countess ‘spoke to’ the mirror was an acoustical toy mirror that could speak.
In this groups research that have also made a connection to mining. In a mining town named bieber that was near the town of Lohr. The dwarfs in this research reportedly wore bright hoods as is often depicted on the dwarfs even today.
They also came to the conclusion that the glass coffin in the original grimms tales of snow white may be linked to the famous glassworks within the region.
They also believe that the poisoned apple could be associated with the highly deadly nightshade that grows all around Lohr.
In the original grimms Fairy tale the Prince did not meet snow White previous to her being poisoned with the poisoned apple but actually after whilst she laid what the dwarfs believed to be dead and asked them if he could take snow White in her glass coffin as he had fallen in love with her and wanted to give her a proper burial. The dwarfs eventually allowed him and when the Prince and his servants took the glass coffin one of them tripped on a branch and this jolted snow White enough for the poisoned apple that was trapped in her throat came out and she awoke to the Prince declaring his love for her and asking for her hand in marriage.
The Queen
In the original fairytale by the Grimm brothers the Queen sends the Huntsman to kill Snow White and bring back her heart and lungs instead of the heart that we know today. When the huntsman brang back the organs to the queen she put them into a pan and boiled them with salt to then eat them satisfied that they were Snow White’s.
When she found out that Snow white was not actually dead she disguised her self not once in order to try and kill Snow White and once more become the fairest in the land but three times.
The first time she disguised her self as a old peddler woman and tricked snow white into trying on one of the bodice laces that the disguised evil queen was using to lore her in she managed to get snow white to agree and once she had her inside of it pulled it so tight that snow could not breath believing this would kill the princess she left.
The second time the queen disguised her self as a different old woman and tricked snow white with a poisoned comb, she convinced snow to let her comb her hair and Ince she did snow collapsed, once again satisfied that snow would die she made off once more.
The third and last time the queen disguised her self once more this time as a another old lady but this time with a poisoned apple that Snow was too eat. One side of the apple was white and the other red. The queen enticed the princess to eat the apple but eating the white half of the apple that was not poisoned.
In the first edition of the grimms (1812) Fairy tales book the Queen was actually Snow White biological mother however this was changed when the second edition (1819) was released and changed to the Queen being her evil stepmother instead.
The Queen in The original Grimms fairy tales also met a much more gruesome death than she did in Walt disneys animated version. In the original she was actually forced by Snow White and her Prince, at their wedding. To wear and dance in cast iron shoes that had been left to burn in a fire, until they were red hot. She had to do this until she fell down dead. In comparison to Walt Disneys version where she is chased to a cliff edge by the dwarfs, where a bolt of lightning strikes the cliff and sends the Queen ultimately plummeting to her untimely death.
The Queen is a very selfish and vain person who only cared bout herself and being the fairest in the land and when she found out that snow White was the fairest in the land and fairer than herself she couldn’t stand this and set out to murder the Princess in order to be the fairest in the land once more no matter what she had to do innorder to gain this and no matter the cost.
Walt disney released his animated version of snow white in 1937 and made the story known worldwide this is the version that is more commonly known today.