Pantomime or Panto as it tends to be known tends to be regarded as something strangley English, which is not entirely true, it has been exported to a number of countries around the world, most of which do have some connection with the UK in their history, such as Australia, Malta, Canada and the USA.
This Christmas we are in the UK for a few days, the song by Chris Rea (Driving home for Christmas for those that don't know) has nothing on the amount of driving we'll have done by the time we finally get back home to Spain on January 8th (that story will follow in another blog post).
What has become a bit of a Christmas tradition from when we lives in the UK is going to see the local panto the Princes Hall in Aldershot, the same team have been producing it for 28 years, and we've seen it almost every year for those 28 years. So yesterday off we went to the Princes Hall in Aldershot to watch this years, Cinderella. The panto at the Princes Hall is regarded as one of the best regional ones despite not having one of the big name stars from the likes of EastEnders for example taking a leading role. Performers who have taken part in it have over the years gone on to do big things.
What can be said is the jokes haven't got any better and they are definitely on two levels, the format has evolved during that time although the principle remains the same, pick a story like Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk or Aladdin, to name a few. Then you have the pantomime villian or villians, in the case of Cinderella it is the case of the step mother and the ugly sisters, have men dress up as pantomime dames, for Cinderella this is typically the ugly sisters and the fairy godmother. Next you have the whole boy meets girl bit and the end up living happily ever after.
Definitely a family show with lots of audience participation from singalongs, to getting squirted with water pistols, to finding a "victim" in the audience to poke fun at all the way thru. Plus the throwing of sweets and a few other goodies into the audience at regular intervals. Of course you must not forgot the most famous phrase involving audience participation "oh no it isn't" responded to with "oh yes it is".
Panto is designed to work on all levels, so if you are 5 or 55 definitely worth a try, if you haven't already. Economically it makes a massive difference to regional theatres in the UK, I know many such theatres who the profits they make on the panto sustain them for the rest of the year. Despite the fairly dire economic situation in the UK it was good to see the theatre full yesterday and it is sold out for most peformances until it closes on December 31st.
Oh and please note the photos of the performance were taken with permission.
Merry Christmas everyone 🎄🎅
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