Pantomime Animals

In pantomime there is often a tradition of having pantomime animals, such as the cat in “Dick Whittington” or the cow in “Jack and the Beanstalk”. In our production we looked into the idea of having an actor performing a “skin part” (animal role) but found that a pantomime animal would look rather out of place on our stage.

However an idea was suggested of giving the Fairy Godmother and Father small dogs that they could carry around with them. This led to a dog audition that took place with real dogs. This audition allowed us to see the practicalities of having an actual animal on stage with us.

Immediately issues were found with keeping the dogs focused and following instructions due to the excitement of the auditions. However the immediate reaction of the dogs being brought into the Hanger brought an almost simultaneously cooing amongst everyone in the room.

Using a real dog in the pantomime would enable us to gain the support of the audience as they would be enraptured by the event of having a real dog on the stage and they gain a much stronger sympathy from the audience, which means the audience are going to actively support the Fairy Godmother and Father.

 

 

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/pantomime-acts/

http://www.carshaltonpanto.org.uk/pantomime.shtml