British Pantomime Performance

by Millie Taylor

British pantomime, a blend of commedia dell’arte and vaudeville-style performance, uses cross-dressing, familiar children’s stories such as Cinderella , and shouts from the audience as the basis for its matchless theatrical spectacle. Millie Taylor’s British Pantomime Performance explores how pantomime creates an interactive relationship with—and potentially transformative experience for—its audiences.


In its uniquely British form, pantomime draws viewers into the story through an engagement with the hero, an empathetic attachment to the success of the quest, and a complicit relationship between actors and spectators as they unite to create the live performance. A heady combination of slapstick, dance, and witty repartee, British pantomime strives to seek balance between the intellectual appreciation of artifice, the chaotic possibilities of interactivity, and the emotional engagement of narrative storytelling. British Pantomime Performance digs beneath the jokes to force a reevaluation of pantomime’s importance as a dramatic art form.

 


“Their [industry professionals] contributions provide a fascinating insight not only into some of the secrets and tricks that help produce the magic we see on stage, but also help complement and develop the ideas of the author. I would highly recommend it to anyone working in pantomime or teaching it in the post-16 sector.”— Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama


 


“It is rare for a scholarly work to be so handy with the nuts and bolts of performance. Millie Taylor has been the musical director of British professional pantomimes, and there has never been a better guide that this to the true priorities of those who stalwartly produce them.”—Peter Thompson, Editor of Studies in Theatre & Performance

 

 

 

 

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up with pantomime productions from my local community theater, though I don't remember them well. This book looks at what makes "panto" distinctive: the mix of songs, comedy, slapstick ("slosh scenes") and audience participation. And what changes over time: professional panto tends to be lavish and eye catching which is to say expensive; increasingly that challenges the budget.
I think I'd have liked more of a history of the genre's evolution but as far as an overview of current (i.e., past 50 years or so) performance, this is excellent.