What is pantomime?
According to the dictionary pantomime is a theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, in which performers express meaning through gestures accompanied by music.
Pantomime usually involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story. They also encourage the audience to sing along or take part during certain parts of the play.
Elements of pantomime include slapstick comedy, good vs evil, gender role reversal and audience participation.
The sole purpose of pantomime is to make people laugh, by using over the top and exaggerated movements and facial expressions.
History of pantomime:
Pantomime originated in ancient Greece during the sixteenth century. And was invented by John Rich , an un educated man in 1720. He was a dancer and an acrobat who created a new type of entertainment featuring metamorphosis and a harlequin and the fuse of myth, music and ballet. The harlequin/harlequinade is defined as ‘that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal part.’ By the Oxford English dictionary. The harlequin is the lead comedy role/clown of a pantomime who brings the goofy and merry energy. Pantomime has its roots in ‘Commedia dell’Arte’ which is a 16th century Italian entertainment which includes acrobatics, mischievous characters, dance,music and tumbling.
Contreversy :
Despite the pantomime being very popular, it also came with a lot of controversy and criticism with many people fearing that panto was taking away from the Shakespeare and the seriousn of theatre. Because of this pantomime was associated with the Christmas season rather than being a regular show, which created a good system and caused people to not be mad about the threat on ‘real theatre’.
Pantomime facts:
- The first proper pantomime was reased in 1712, entitled ‘the magician’
- The evil characters in panto usually enter from the left to symbolise evil and he’ll, and the good characters traditionally enter the right, which represents good and heaven.
- Pantomimes were originally silent and perfmances contained loads of mime an dancing, until 1843, when the parliament’s theatre act lifted it.
- Men had to play all the roles, as during the time women weren’t allowed to perform on stage so the men had to play there roles.
- Live animals often appeared onstage during the victorian pantomime
What is snow White?
Snow White is a famous fairytale written in 1812 by the Grimm brothers. The book they published was titled Sneewittchen which is the German translate of snow white. The book contains features such as snow white the evil queen , the seven dwarves and a poison apple, which are well known in the movie. The dwarves remained nameless until the show was brought to Broadway in 1912, where they were given the names, blick,flick,plick, snick,quee and whick. Until disney renamed them happy, doepy,sleepy,sneezy,grumpy,doc and bashful, in the snow white amd seven dwarves movie released in 1937.
Movie Plot:
When snow White’s step mother,the evil queen, finds out snow white is more fairer than her, as told by a magic mirror, she becomes extremely angry amd jealous resulting in her ordering her dead. Snow runs away and finds a cottage with 7 dwarves, they promise to protect her, in exchange she cooks and cleans for them. So the Queen tries to kill her by giving her a poison apple but she is woken by true loves kiss and the queen is killed.
Although the plot is nearly the same as the movie, it contrasts as we have added new characters and scenes to make it more comedic and friendly for the audience, aswell as songs and dances, which panto normally uses.
The mirror:
In the story of snow white, the evil queen has a magic mirror that she keeps in her Chambers, who proclaims her the fairest of them all. The mirror was first introduced in 1937 as the queen’s ‘slave’ who is cursed in order to serve her. It can not lie and only tell the truth. There have been many interpretations on what the mirror symbolises, such as, the voice of snows father judging beauty between his wife and daughter, wisdom, self knowledge and vanity. The identity of the mirror us never reveled even when the queen dies at the end of the movie it is never confirmed that he is free.
The mirror/percival:
In the pantomime that we are doing, the mirror has the identity/body of percival, who was cursed into the mirror by the queen, and the only way that she could escape was if the mirror was broken. However she still had the same aspects as original snow white, like all ways telling the truth and being loyal to the queen.
The history behind snow white:
Research suggests that the origin behind snow white was inspired by a german countess called Margaretha Von Waldeck amd her alleged lover Phillip II of Spain. When her father Phillip IV remarried, Margaretha’s new step mum didn’t like her and was very strict, so when she was 16 she was sent away to go amd live with her uncle. Where she met Phillip II, who fell hopelessly in love with her. However this came with the strong disapproval of many, and at the age of 21 Margaretha died. Many people commented that they believe she had been slowly poisoned in time and her last testaments to her father she explains she did not die of natural causes.
Margaretha’s father owned a series of cooper mimes, where due to poor working conditions and malnurishment, children working there stopped growing and were often referred to as ‘poor dwarves ‘. And like the dwarves in snow white the children were forced to live in small groups in small cottages.
There is also a girl named Maria Sophia Margaretha Catherina von Erthal who lived in a castle in Germany, who is also rumoured to be some kind of inspiration for snow white. When her mother died her father remarried and like Margaretha and snow white didn’t get on very well with her step mum. He gifted her a large looking glass, the glassworks on the mirror was so high quality at the time it was so clear that it would ‘only speak the truth’. This can be found In Spessart Museum in Lohr. Similarly to Margaretha around her land often children would work in mimes unpaid.
