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The British Pantomime

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Pantomimes are a tradition throughout the UK over the Christmas Holidays. Containing both good and evil characters, the English Pantomime descended from Commedia Dell'Arte, a form of comedy popular in Italy between the 16th-17th century which later spread throughout western Europe and finally arrived in London in a slightly different form.

Pantomimes were originally staged with the main male character being played by a female and the main female character being played by a male (called "the Dame"). This emerged from the music halls of the Victorian Era.* Nowadays it is more likely that it will just be the Dame, for example in Dick Whittington or in Cinderella where the three stepsisters are played by men.

Classic pantomimes include Cinderella, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Peter Pan. The first recorded pantomime of Dick Whittington was in 1814 but the play itself dates back to the 1600's. Cinderella is the most popular of all pantomimes and was first shown in 1870 in Covent Garden, London.

As mentioned above, the Pantomime has strong ties with Commedia Dell' Arte, A "comedy of professional artists" travelling from province to province in Italy and then France. They improvised and told stories which told lessons to the crowd and changed the main character depending on where they were performing. Each story had the same fixed characters: the lovers, father, servants (one being crafty and the other stupid), etc. These roles/characters can still be found in today's pantomime. Also with entrances in modern pantomimes, the good fairy always enters from the right side of the stage and the evil villain enters on the left. In Commedia Dell 'Arte the right side of the stage symbolized Heaven and the left side symbolized Hell.

The Pantomime first arrived in England as entre acts between Opera pieces, eventually evolving into separate shows. The theatre in Lincoln's Inn and Drury Lane were the first to stage pantomimes, creating high competition between the two theatres to make the more elaborate show. With the manageer of Drury Lane in the 1870's, Agustus Harris being now considered the father of modern pantomime.

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