Everyone loves a pantomime, right?
Nothing like a spot of ‘Oh no she didn’t’, ‘Oh yes he did’ to raise one out of a seasonally depressed slumber. It provides a nostalgic jaunt down memory lane, to a time in which the Christmas pantomime was a reliable date in the diary with Mum and Dad, Grandma and Grandad, or general relatives embracing the Christmas spirit. There was nothing like the standard cross-dressing fiasco to force a laugh from even the sternest fathers corralled into attendance.
However, is this experience we remember still the experience lived? With a standard Dress Circle ticket costing you close to £40 (£39 or £36.50), the expectations are high, and rightly so.
With cuts to the arts sector coming thick and fast, are pantomimes to be cherished as a symbol of theatrical constancy, or are they tradition for traditions sake, and no longer desirable in a world where real issues should be brought to the forefront of public indulgence.
While panto will always have its haters – the Christmas scrooges who aren’t willing to get into spirit before the 24th December – I thoroughly believe the average Christmas enjoyer is firmly behind the party line of silly grins when a pantomime is mentioned.
Surely this necessary distraction from the woes of essay season and nighttime at 4pm is to be cherished, not mocked. Pantomime is sometimes seen by the theatre industry as the place where a career goes to die, with Robbie Williams facing criticism in 2018 when he told Sky News he was “proud to have an entertainment career this long” without “having to do panto” leading to a staunch defence of the industry by those at its heart.
Only the year before in 2017, the London Palladium pantomime of Dick Whittington won an Olivier award for the best entertainment and family category, illustrating the necessity and recognition that the industry is able to garner. Such stars as Craig Revel Horwood and Dawn French have forayed into panto arguably showing it’s not something to settle for but strive for. It is, after all, likely to be every child’s first introduction to the stage and the vast world that acting has to offer.
Furthermore, a substantial chunk of a theatres overall revenue comes from the Christmas season of panto enjoyers. An average of 15 per cent of all UK theatre tickets sold between 2013 and 2016 (pre-covid levels) were for pantomimes, and it was the pantomime season of 2021 and 2022 that helped get theatres back on their feet after the pandemic. Pantomimes are a whimsical stroll down memory lane and a necessary escape from the inevitable winter slump one ends up in during the run up to Christmas.
“story of christmas pantomime c” by janwillemsen is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
