pantomime

Pantomime. It’s definitely not a word I heard of before moving to the UK.

It’s a stage production -- usually set to the stories of children’s favourite fairy tales -- held during the holidays. Although, we had no idea what goes on at a pantomime, we always felt they were mostly targeted to children.

Although Derby hosted its Snow White pantomime over Christmas, this past weekend, we went to our first English pantomime in Ecclesfield, just north of Sheffield. The theatre was intimate with about 100 seats and the number of cast in the production of Cinderella was just over a tenth of those seated in the audience. The main reason for making the trek was the lady who has been helping me with my data collection had a part in the show.

After sitting through our first pantomime, we noticed a few things. The casting roles are switched: the male roles are played by females and vice versa. For example, Cinderella’s two evil stepsisters were two men dressed in Halloween wigs and in distastefully coloured dresses. They encouraged audience participation. Boos and hisses for the villains and, near the end, we all got up from our seats to do a little dance. The show was totally personalized, as there were a couple of remarks by one stepsister directed specifically at us (“people making the trip from Derby” and “general manager of the Derby football time”).

All in all, it was great fun and we’ll definitely catch another pantomime during the next holiday season.