History of Pantomime

The origin of Cinderella comes from Charles Perrault’s fairy tale “Cinderella, Or The Little Glass Slipper”. The pantomime follows along the same storyline as Perrault’s storyline of Cinderella’s father marrying his second wife who has two daughters of her own. The three women are cruel to Cinderella and treat her like their servant. Cinderella is described as having a “rare goodness and sweetness of temper”, a direct contrast to the odious personalities of her stepsisters.
 

In pantomime you are always given a hero or heroine to cheer for as they have to face some kind of struggle before reaching their happy ending. In the case of Cinderella we watch as she refuses to let her new stepmother and stepsisters ruin her chance of finding true love. Perrault’s description of her “sweetness of temper” allows us to show the audience that no matter how much the Baroness and sisters try to tear her down she will not go down.

In our pantomime it was discussed how Cinderella is not a victim as we first presumed. The reminder that she is in fact a heroine rather than a victim allowed us to show how she continues to fight against the bullying of her new mother and sisters.

The humour and comedy style used in pantomimes is not something that has been used only in the last fifty years, but goes back as far as 1831 when a production called Olympic Devils (based on the Greek legend of Orpheus) was staged as the Christmas entertainment. The show can easily be compared to pantomime with its use of verbal puns and slapstick humour. These elements have not been lost over the years and were very much apparent in our production of Cinderella.

Puns are used to get a reaction from the audience, an example would be the lines underlined in the extract from Act 1, Scene 2:

 

The way Buttons amusingly twists the meaning of his sentence to suggest more than a suit he received for his birthday results in an immediate reaction from the audience. The groan of realisation as the audience realise the obviousness of the joke is something often found in pantomime. The audience are expecting verbal puns that will receive a groan rather than a laugh.

Slapstick humour is almost like a necessity in pantomime now. The comedy character or characters are often placed in situations that will result in them becoming harmed in some elaborate way that will result in plentiful laughs. Ammer and Tongs are the comedy duo in Cinderella and their business with one another and the stepsisters results in a lot of slapstick humour. Moments include Tongs being thrown onto the floor several times and Ammer and Tongs being thrown about and lifted by the step sisters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHD2MZjR_sI

This clip of Laurel and Hardy shows the similarities between this famous comedy duo and Ammer and Tongs. The moments when Laurel is being shaken and kicked by the policeman is very similar to the way in which the sisters treat Ammer and Tongs in Cinderella. Ammer and Tongs are almost used like rag dolls at moments in the pantomime and it is humorous for the audience as they watch as Ammer and Tongs are flung around the stage with their limbs flailing around. The audience enjoys the comedy as the Brokers men struggle continuously against the sisters.

 

http://www.worldoftales.com/fairy_tales/Charles_Perrault/CINDERELLA,_OR_THE_LITTLE_GLASS_SLIPPER.html

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

http://www.academia.edu/1992452/The_Pun_is_Mightier_than_the_Sword_the_Cognition_of_Verbal_Humor