We, up in Scotland, play pranks that increase as the run goes on. The audience also celebrate mess ups by the cast, much to out annoyance. This, I think, makes you feel the show that night is unique.
Oh no I don't. Oh yes, actually I'm a Brit and can't imagine spending the Christmas season without visiting a pantomime. You've done a splendid job describing what takes place in a panto. The best fun is if you just give in to your inner child, and go with the absurdness of it all. Yes, the last night is when the pranks are pulled, often a little risqué, which is why those seats are sold out first.
@@kathymak3617 we've not always managed the last night but in those we have the pranks have all been on the slapstick side. Often props are changed and the actor has to work around them. I remember a milking stool (Jack had to milk the pantomime cow) which kept getting substituted for a bigger one, until he was almost upside down trying to reach the udder to squirt milk at the Dame. Making props bigger or smaller is a common one and the children love it.
Yes I worked backstage on 17 years worth of pantomimes. Last night pranks were common and the crew did perform a few "cod" pantos on the end of run party night.
Thanks for explaining the history and traditions of pantomime. It's not very common where I live (Australia) and it's always seemed so odd to me, so it was great to get an understanding of it. As for last performance pranks: I wonder if that's a general theatre/stage thing. Every time I've been involved in a musical or stage performance, we always plan something silly for the last night. Definitely no sausage references, though!
On the subject of closing night pranks, a recurring theme in our local pantomime would always be for the crew to put something wholly inappropriate in a box that is usually opened and revealed to the audience. The result was the actor who opened the box laughing at the item in the box and then having to ad-lib something to explain why they were not going to show it to the audience as they had done on every other night.
Thank you for such a detailed look at the history. It seems to be really hard to find specifics like this, most things just say it came from Comedia del Arte and leave it at that. I have been doing panto with my own drama group in London for over 10 years now and have to say I love it. Playing henchman this year. As to last night pranks. Well, we have done them in the past, but yes it does have to be stuff that doesn't affect the audience. We did one year when the dame opened a suitcase and then take stuff out of it, so we taped a rehearsal picture to the inside of it, where the audience couldn't see, to make him laugh. However, the attitude in the group now does seem to be that if it's funny enough for the last night then it's funny enough for every night, and I have to say I agree with that.
Vancouver BC has many productions of Pantos each year and I don't think I've seen those kinds of pranks played. You nailed the explanation! Does HK do on demand/livestream? ...would love to tune in....
Thank you for your outline on pantomime, Kathy, and how it celebrates and replays some event or another from the past. It got me to wondering about another possible purpose of pantomime. Do you know of any pantomime that was ever performed, to try to force an event into the future? An event such as, the earnest hope that the wishes of the performers, and the crowd watching, would be brought to real life, by the staged performance of it?
I believe it wasn't developed in England. It has been going on since classical theatre across western Europe. Pantomime came to the UK from France. I am British and even I know it isn't a British invention.
Hii, What is the thing that contribute to today's British Pantomime in 2:22 in the video? Maybe I didn't hear it clearly or maybe I just don't know the word. thanks.
