Pantomime as we know it, is nearly 200 years old, and yet is still alive and well in humble halls and top theatres across the United Kingdom. It’s a curious British art from that just refuses to die.

Image courtesy of LollyKnit

It’s pantomime season again.  “No it isn’t! Yes it is! No it isn’t! Yes it is!” And although we all know the stories backwards, hordes of theatregoers (as well as those who would never darken a proscenium arch at any other time of year) will watch in delight to see if Aladdin will get out of Ali Baba’s cave or if Snow White will be cured of her narcolepsy.

Job creation for B Grade celebs?

What is it about this curiously British theatre convention that refuses to die? Cynics would say that it is kept alive simply to prolong the careers of B Grade British celebs who in any sane world would have been able to slip mercifully into oblivion, but it’s deeper than that, much, much deeper.

Pantomime – which comes from the Greek for ‘an imitator of things’ – originally meant a performer (as it still does in America where Vaudeville became the dominant populist theatre form). But in Great Britain it refers to a theatrical convention that became popular in the 19th Century where women play the leading male, men play the comic Dame and bad jokes are de rigueur.

Slapstick humour

Affectionately known as ‘Panto’, it is a mixture of Fairy Story, spectacle, song, dance, topical humour, satire, slapstick and double entendre, with the audience playing an indispensable role, much like the chorus in ancient Greek theatre. There are stock roles, stock dialogue and stock comic routines, some of which the audience know better than the actors: ‘It’s behind you!’ and ‘Fee Fi Fo Fum’ have been screamed with glee by children for nearly 200 years.

Commedia del Arte

The most influential ancestor of pantomime was the populist Italian theatre of the 16th and 17th Century known as the Commedia del Arte. It is in the Commedia, that the stock pantomime characters came into their own. Still recognisable in the pantomime of today are Commedia’s star-crossed lovers (Harlequin and Columbine), the miserly old man (Pantelone), the braggard (Il Capitano) and the comic servants (the quick-witted Scaramuccia, and the dim-witted Pulcinella), to name but a few.

The Commedia travelled from Italy to France (Harlequin was reborn as Pierot) and then across the channel to England, where ‘Harlequinades’ became popular in Elizabethan theatres.

Music hall

By Victorian times, Music Hall had become the most popular of all theatre genres with its earthy humour, toe-tapping tunes and subversive digs at the upper classes. It was only a matter of time before cross-pollination between the traditional Harlequinades and the new style of musical theatre took place and pantomime, as we know it today, was born.

Fairy tales and Roman romps

By the turn of the 19th Century, the Harlequinades had adopted Fairy Stories as their plots and the now familiar pantomimes of Aladdin (1813), Dick Whittington (1814), Jack and the Beanstalk (1819) and  Cinderella (1820), took on much of the form they still have today.

But the roots of pantomime can be found even earlier than this, harking back to the Saturnalia festivities of Rome, when, on what has now become Christmas Day, the members of leading households would switch roles for a day and sometimes put on a play. The master became the servant, the servant the master, men women and women men.

Mystery plays and women’s rights

Ironically enough, there are even traces of it in the mediaeval Mystery plays – used to teach Bible stories to a largely illiterate population – where Mrs Noah was very much a ‘dame’. In Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre, men of course always played women, but after the 17th Century Restoration, when women were first allowed onto the stage, the comic elderly woman was still played by a man. This could also be attributed to the fact that many ageing actresses refused to play older women – ah yes, vanity, thy name is indeed woman!

Slap those thighs!

But lust, thy name is man! The curious convention of having a young woman play the heroic male lead can be attributed to Victorian gentlemen producers trying to get around the pervading censorship of women’s legs. An actress dressed as a woman would not be able to show her ankles, but an actress dressed as a man could show the full length of the offending limbs and heartily slap her thighs to bring attention to them.

By the 1950s the tradition of women playing the leading man was dying out, with Norman Wisdom famously playing Aladdin at the London Palladium in 1957. However, it is thanks to leggy Cilla Black who played the role in 1971, that women started gaining ground again. Nowadays, the lead male role can he played by men or women.

Crowd pleasers

The convention of bringing in celebrities from other fields is not an invention of the media-conscious 21st Century – Victorian producers knew all about marketability without ever having heard the word. Sporting heroes or existing stars of the Music Hall were guaranteed to draw the crowds, and allowing them stage time to showcase their latest songs was considered a small price to pay. Hence, the convention of using contemporary songs was born. During performance, the Music Hall artistes often changed the style of pantomime plots and even the dialogue, by inserting some of their own well-rehearsed routines – as long as they drew the crowds, the producers didn’t mind.

Everyone’s a critic

But not everyone was happy. In 1882, pantomime aficionado W. Davenport Adams decried: “Now to what do we owe this unfortunate, nay painful feature of pantomime performances? I fear there can be but one answer to the question: we owe it to the Music Hall element among the performers. Why must there always be a woman dressed in tights? Why must the comic woman always be a man? Have we not plenty of youthful premiers and female comedians?”

Sadly Mr Adams missed the point. These are the very things that make pantomime. It is what the audience has come to expect and shrewd producers of every generation know that what the audience wants, the audience gets.

Adapt or die

But how can an art form that is shackled to the past still cut it with modern audiences? The answer lies in the melding of the old and the new, the comfortingly familiar and the surprisingly contemporary. Children go to pantomimes to enjoy the spectacle and the Fairy Tale; grown-ups go to see how clever the performers will be in bringing in the latest current affairs and gossip. It is never politically correct, it is never artistically pretentious; it is theatre for the people, by the people and at the expense of people.

In the 1860s it was rumoured that ex-prime minister Lord Palmerston died in the arms of a chambermaid after spending himself on a billiard table; in 2005 it was revealed that arch Labour activist and Home Secretary David Blunket spent many a night in the arms of an American publisher. Both are script material, and whether it is Snow White or Cinderella, it is bound to get in.

This is how pantomime has survived: it links us to our past and our present at the same time, and in years to come, will link us to future generations. And that’s all there is to say!

First published in Realm Magazine, December 2005.

A Gardener’s Gospel – Week 11

There’s a programme on British television called Mr Maker. I hate Mr Maker. With a dashing smile and charming good looks, this young man woos our children, like the Pied Piper, into believing that with bits ‘n bobs and PVA glue, anything is possible. Projects that should take 24 hours, allowing for drying time, appear to be complete in less than 30 seconds. It is then that our children want us to replicate.

‘Let’s do that mummy!
‘But we don’t have all the bits ‘n pieces, darling.’
‘But why not?’ they ask with quivering lips.

One day, however, Mr Maker came up with an idea we could replicate – so I thought. He poured some cress seed into an old pair of tights then stuffed it with cotton wool. Elastic bands made ears and a nose, and some fancy store-bought eyes were stuck on for effect – we just used a thick black pen. Megan and I baptised our creation with water and named him: Mr Potato Head.

Mr Potato Head

Every morning for the next week we checked to see if Mr Potato Head’s hair was growing. Eventually we saw tiny shoots pushing their way out of the seeds. I wondered at that time whether they would be able to push their way through the teensy weensy holes in the toes of my tights to reach the fresh air. I can’t help wondering if that’s what my toes think whenever they’re ensconced …

Some of them did (the shoots, not my toes) and after another week, Mr Potato Head had a patchy crop of cress hair. But far more of it was crammed underneath in a green cushion dying to burst free. Eventually I decided to deviate from Mr Maker’s instructions and cut the scalp off Mr Potato Head. My husband was shocked at my audacity, but, as a gardener, I knew I was right. And, I would swear, Mr Potato Head smiled.

Three weeks later we have a healthy head of cress hair that I’ve used in a plethora of culinary delights: roast gammon, lamb casserole, potato salad … now we just wonder how long he can last. Do we replant him into potting compost? If so, do we just stick the cotton wool in the pot and cover it with soil? Any advice would be most welcome (leave comments below, please).

Dreams and visions

In the meantime, I’m reminded of a time in my life, about 10 years ago, when I was assailed with dreams, visions and prophetic words about needing a bit of head space. At the time I was running a Christian theatre company in South Africa. But I had a series of dreams that suggested I needed a change. Firstly, I dreamt I was a rose on a trellis. I reached the end of the trellis and had nowhere else to go. I also dreamt I was an orchid, but that my roots were scraping the sides of my pot. Another dream was of me on a swing, reaching the zenith of my trajectory and being frustrated that I couldn’t go any higher. Then, when I was visiting Kimberley on a ministry trip, I looked into the Big Hole and saw myself as one of the diggers, being unable to break through the rock-face, and drowning, as so many of them did, when the monsoons came. Finally, I dreamt I was a soldier with a helmet that fit when I first went into battle, but later, as a war-scarred veteran, was crushing my scalp.

Bars of iron

One day, while I was mulling over these dreams, the leader of Youth With a Mission in Muizenberg, Cape Town, a woman called Leonor van Gass, came to me and said she’d had a vision. She said she saw me with a metal band on my head. When it was first put on, it fit perfectly. But since then, despite being adjusted for size, it had now come to the end of its expansion. I told Leonor about my dreams then asked her what she thought it meant in light of the vision she had just had:

‘You need some head space,’ she said.

Although I was very happy with YWAM and living what I thought was the ultimate Christian dream – full-time ministry leading, acting and writing for a theatre company – I wasn’t happy. For some reason I really wanted to come to the UK – where I was born. I knew there was so much I had to learn, and as the ‘leader’ I spent my whole time teaching others but having no one from whom I could receive.

Secular ministry

To cut a long story short, I’m no longer in full-time Christian ministry, and yet my writing, including this blog, reaches more people than I ever dreamt of during that time. I have become a professional writing tutor, dealing with Christian and non-Christian writers alike, and am making in-roads into the mainstream theatre world. I definitely feel as if I’ve found some head space and am finally able to breathe. Is it a scary place to be? Yes, but that’s the subject of another post.

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left.
Isaiah 54:2-3

I first met Lara Mellon (or Bendeman as she was then) in art class when we were 13. By the end of the year it was clear that she had the talent and I… well, I dropped art and took up typing! Now 22 years later, we’ve met again through Friends Reunited, and I’m still typing and she’s still painting. We were thrilled to hear that we’re both Christians and serving the Lord through our respective gifts of writing and art.

Bringing God the little

I’d been struggling to find the right way to start an article about my old friend, when an email popped into my ‘in’ box. It was from Lara. “Dearest Fiona. As I write to you I’m having a little break whilst painting an oil of ‘Two fishes ‘n five Loaves’ for a friend. I’ve been battling a bit and was on my knees, painting with my whole hands, palms ‘n all, in absolute frustration … and yes, praying like mad ‘cause I’m just about past deadline on this one … when suddenly it took on a new (and probably its own) direction.

“It isn’t what I was intending, but I think probably more in line with the commissioner’s taste. The whole time I’m painting this I keep thinking how the Lord asks us to bring the little we have to him, and he does the multiplication and the miracles. We just have to be obedient with the tiny bit we have, even when it doesn’t seem to make logical sense to us. It is for me very humbling as I keep thinking, there must be a zillion billion trillion other artists who are a kazillion times more talented than me, yet the Lord keeps getting me to bring the little talent I have before him and he seems to be blessing others with it … hmm, on we go.”

Paint smudges

I could almost see the paint smudges on the keyboard. What a timely reminder that we just have to do our little bit and God will do the rest. Although Lara had been painting and drawing all her life, it was only in 1995 when she was on a Christian retreat called The Walk to Emmaus that she realised that God might actually want to use her ‘little hobby’ to his glory.

“It was at this weekend that I realised that the Lord does not require perfection – just honesty and authenticity and to live my life with what He’s already given me. We had to do projects and I was required to do drawings. I realised that what I regarded as ‘just a little bit of talent’ was really appreciated and even needed by other people. I realised that it isn’t about me and what I can do, but about me being obedient and therein allowing God’s Spirit to touch people,” says Lara.

Witholding our talents

This idea of offering up our talents to God is very humbling. So often we think that our talents are for ourselves, for our own advancement, when in fact they are not ours at all. Those of us who use our talents professionally need to be reminded of this. And so do those who are too frightened to show their talents for fear of being judged harshly. But if our talents are not ours, then we have no right to withold them from God or from others.

Lara learnt this lesson after receiving a commission to paint an angel. “I was a little skeptical, and I gently explained to the lady that I don’t really paint pretty fairies sitting on tulips! But she insisted and explained she needed a painting for above her bed which would remind her that she was not alone. The painting needed to bring her comfort. I realised that the people commissioning me wanted the paintings for very specific purposes and not merely for decoration.

Art as ministry

“It was at this time that I realised my art was a ministry. Before, I had expected to produce a work then sell it to a purchaser who saw its worth. I expected that I would determine the subject matter and paint what was important for me and what interested me. But the Lord turned that idea on its head! The success of my art has been painting what other people want. I still have to interpret the commission and I still use my own style, but it serves the commissioner’s requirements, not my own, and I’m blessed in the process.”

Lara lives and works in Durban and sells her art both locally and abroad. She has been married to Patrick for 15 years and they have two children, Andrea (14) and James (10). “Our faith is central to our family and the children both have a strong, personal relationship with Christ,” says Lara.

Gunpoint

Their faith was tested to the full in August 2000 when armed robbers broke into their Northway home. Lara and her husband were held at gunpoint while the four intruders packed up all their valuables and loaded them into Lara and Patrick’s two cars.

“I was so sure that they intended to kill us,” says Lara. “Not just because they didn’t bother disguising themselves, but because that evening at 10 o’clock, I had printed the last of nearly 100 letters to friends and family members with whom I had lost touch and felt compelled to write to. I explained in my letter how gracious God had been and what a happy and complete family we were. I ended by thanking each person for the impact they had on our lives and for the difference they had made in the world.

“Looking at the gloved hand holding the gun, I thanked God for the opportunity to print and seal every last letter. There was no unfinished business, and I even managed a little smile because I remembered that I had managed to pay off and close the last of my clothing accounts that day!”

Praying for their lives

But God had other plans for Lara and her family and she and Patrick prayed earnestly for their lives, claiming Jeremiah 29:11 about God’s plans to prosper and not harm them and give them a hope and a future.

“I prayed the blood of Jesus over my whole family and that my children would stay asleep in their rooms. Then I prayed for the men’s forgiveness and for my own forgiveness for contributing to the sin of the world.”

Then miraculously, the robbers left, without laying a finger on either of them.

A close-knit family

Lara says that they have not been scarred by their ordeal, but have become more grateful for the time the Lord has granted them to be together as a family. As a result, Lara makes every effort to include them in her work. Her studio is very much part of the house – a family place. “We’re a very close-knit family and are often together in the studio doing homework, work or art. There’s no ‘my space / your space’.”

Lara says that the success and enjoyment of her marriage is that she and Patrick both enjoy serving each other. Although Patrick (an accountant) has learnt that when Lara asks for his opinion on a painting she doesn’t want a 10 point list of ‘areas to consider’ pinned to the canvas!

But Lara tells me that it isn’t always easy maintaining balance between the different aspects of her life. Apart from being a successful artist, a regular speaker at Christian retreats and devoted mother and wife, she also works as a recruitment consultant for the large financial advisory firm, Deloitte and Touche.

Feeding the soul

“Keeping my prayer life, daily devotional and quiet time in place is key to maintaining harmony between all the demands of life. As much as I like routine, my painting keeps me spontaneous. It feeds a part of my soul. When I’m not painting or creating I’m not as nice to be around. Even if I only paint once a week, I seem to deal with stress better. I think more clearly, sleep better and work better,” she says.

Although she considers herself a Christian artist, she is very careful not to get caught up in a holy huddle. She is a member of a secular group called the Garrett Artists and feels very comfortable expressing her spirituality in non-Christian settings. “My faith in Christ is at the very core of everything in my life and in all of my work. My art needn’t be obviously ‘Christian’ (with crosses, doves and so on) but even in my abstract work, the very nature and spirit of the painting communicates to the viewer all that Christianity is and represents. Particularly in the corporate world, I’ve often had opportunities to discuss a painting which doesn’t have a literal reference to Christ (but has a message of hope, direction, light and truth) and so share my faith.”

To view more of Lara’s work or to just have a chat, log onto : www.walkinthelight.org.za/laramellon.html. Walk In the Light Ministries work with a poverty and Aids-stricken community in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Lara tithes the proceeds of her art to them.

First appeared in Today magazine, November 2004 as ‘Loaves ‘n Fishes’