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The Panto Passion of the Brits, Explained

by Zoe Strimpel
Tue, 18 Dec 2007 at 2:18 PM

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It's "panto" season! Derived from Italian masked comedy (itself from ancient Italian fabulae Atellanae, or low Roman comedy), the British pantomime is as culturally explicit as the drunken late-night kebab. Throughout the festive season, countless pantos are staged around the country in schools, churches, community centers, and — here's the oddest thing — big, fancy theaters, too. As with their taste for cups of milky orange tea, nights of excess in sticky, dingy pubs, and talent-scoping reality-TV shows, the Brits always come back for more.

Pantomimes tend to be based on a handful of fairy tales, including "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Aladdin," "Cinderella," and Mother Goose. "Loosely" based is perhaps more accurate, and often each show combines inspiration from several stories. Panto is all about the loose and the rule-bending, anyway, and what counts most is that female characters are played by men and that there are plenty of bawdy innuendoes (which the kids are not intended to understand), which the audience must show appreciation for with hearty bellows of approval (general booing and cheering crop up a lot at panto shows). It goes without saying that entertainment of this smutty, chortly sort can only be enjoyed with a good few drinks in hand. Consequently, you'll be hard-pressed to find a panto audience unencumbered by plastic beer cups, sticky flagons of red wine, and even the odd snifter of whiskey. Such liberties are best suited to the sorts of venues these shows feel at home in — school auditoriums or even shabby but grand venues like the Shepherd's Bush Pavilion in West London, where London's biggest charity panto (performed by what must be the poshest cash in the world, most of whom hail from royalty-rubbing areas like Kensington and Fulham) takes place.

Tonight, high up on the panto scale, is the press night for "Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs" at the Beck Theatre in Hayes. What is grand about this one (in a wonderfully trashy sort of way) is that it stars Sid Owen, former (and about to be returning) lynchpin of the ultimate gritty British TV drama, "EastEnders."

Further up the scale still is "Cinderella" at the Old Vic (of which Kevin Spacey is artistic director), written by Stephen Fry. This one is an example of festive smut overload — critics have tut-tutted at what some feel is an overly sexualized performance (there are kids in the audience, don't forget). Charles Spencer, for one, wrote in the Telegraph:

"As well as the filth, there are also those moments when Fry can't resist showing off what a hugely clever fellow he is. Thus Cinderella's innocent question: 'Is it possible to be too good, Buttons?' is greeted with the response: 'Well actually to Plato happiness was contingent on virtue.'

"This is surely the only pantomime in history to have combined salacious bottom jokes with insufferable smart-alecry."

Abomination indeed. But it's a forgiving time of year, surely.

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