Continuity and Transformation in Twentieth-century Pantomime

Abstract

The modern form of pantomime evolved in the late 1890s and early 1900s and owes a great deal to the Drury Lane pantomimes of J. Hickory Wood and Arthur Collins. George M. Slater wrote an author’s note in his 1916 pantomime Boy Blue that suggests that ‘nowadays the ideal of the pantomime author and producer is only to be attained by the coherent exploitation of a story in which magic and fairy powers are incorporated with humorous interludes (if possible germane to the plot) whilst endeavouring “to point a moral and adorn a tale”’.¹ This is remarkably similar to the sentiments expressed by contemporary writers and producers. Chris Lillicrap begins writing with ‘a strong story’, but he argues that the ideal mix is that there is something, whether verbal comedy, slapstick, variety, song or dance, for all the family.² Producing the right combination is a difficult juggling act for, as Gerald Frow remarks:

The balance is a fine one and it shifts a good deal from generation to generation, production to production. All too frequently it lurches in the direction of the star or stars, but on occasion it lurches equally fatally in the direction of the story, to provide a singularly dull evening devoted entirely to what is pretty, whimsical and fantastical.³