List of Headings
- i A character who provoked sympathy and amusement
- ii Outdoor performances with a standard set of characters
- iii Pantomime as a means of focusing political issues
- iv Discovering pantomime at a young age
- v A way of dealing with a negative attitude towards pantomime
- vi An explanation of how a pantomime character appeals to modern audiences
- vii Debate about the origins of pantomime
- viii A successful merging of artistic sources
Questions 1-7
Drag a heading into each box.
1. For many British children, their first family trip to see a pantomime in the Christmas holiday season is their introduction to the magic of the theatre.
2. These improvised shows took place in streets and marketplaces in Italy. Distinctive masks enabled audiences to recognise the people in these stories immediately; they also allowed actors to be rude or disrespectful without fear of being recognised. The key roles in the cast were invariably rich old men, usually portrayed as cowardly and disreputable; young lovers whose parents refuse to let them marry; and ingenious and quick-witted servants.
3. Among the most popular performances were harlequinades, a new kind of entertainment which interwove Ovid's first-century Latin poem Metamorphoses with aspects of the Italian commedia.
4. Critics bitterly attacked pantomimes, complaining that they would bring about the downfall of Shakespeare and the death of serious theatre. David Garrick realised the commercial opportunities of this new art form. His tactic was to set about changing pantomime's cultural identity, partly by confining shows to his theatre's Christmas season.
5. By the early 19th century, Britain was at war with France; there was intense civil unrest and violent confrontations between the government and the people. Grimaldi's hilarious antics embodied the freedom and liberty of British culture by contrast with the country's supposedly dull, humourless enemies. His anarchic activities included chasing and imprisoning policemen and stealing gigantic quantities of sausages.
6. In the Dame, Leno developed a persona whose theatrical power comes from the locking together of compassion and laughter. At the same time, artists such as Leno began to infuse pantomime with the plots and dilemmas of working people's culture.
7. Pantomimes are as popular today as they have ever been. Our delight in this form comes from a complex mixture of emotions and relationships. Pantomime offers us the anarchic excitements of a topsy-turvy world only to give us the assurance of harmony restored.