It’s the holiday season, when English families long for a wholesome evening of fart jokes, fake smoke, sexual innuendo and drag.
I’m in Bath, and last night I watched the Panto at Theatre Royal.
Panto (or Pantomimes) run during the month around Christmas, but they aren’t holiday-themed shows. It seems like they are mostly loose adaptions of fairy tales: the one I saw last night was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Naturally, I bought the cheapest ticket—up in the nosebleeds on a red velvet stool—where I had an acceptable view of fake smoke pouring out behind the curtain before the show and of the 2 1/2 hours of unending slapstick that followed.
When I say this show was Snow White, I mean it was a pretty loose interpretation. I don’t recall a cross-dressing housekeeper and her bumbling son in the standard fairy tale (the performance had a running gag about the Disney version being copy protected). There was a (boring) Snow White and her (campy) wicked stepmother/Queen and a (even more boring) prince. The actors playing the seven dwarves were little people and there were lots of jokes about their stature: “I see you are short-staffed today” etc etc.
The plot was sketched out to set up audience participation and various gags, which appeared to be a convention of Panto. For example, for some reason a ghost was trying to sneak up on the actors and the audience was expected to help by yelling and pointing “Look behind you: a ghost!” We sang along. We boooooooo-ed the evil Queen. We laughed at fart jokes and dad jokes and constant double entendre. They sprayed us with water cannons.
When I travel I seek out culturally-specific performance; zarzuela in Madrid, Chinese opera in Beijing, Noh theater in Tokyo. The sort of performance where the audience has grown up with genre and multiple generations experience it together as a tradition. What I liked about the Panto in Bath is how self-referential it is—there was even a song that was basically “Hey, you’re watching a Panto so that’s why we’re doing this”. The actors were saying things like “Oh, no, I think someone’s about to burst into song again!”. I think the best line of the play was when the bumbling son turned up out of nowhere and said “Why am I here all of a sudden? Well, I’ll be needed to move the plot along a bit later.”
How I got to Bath: train from London.
Where I slept: Premier Inn Bath City Centre. Price: £72 for a single. Recommended: yes.
Picnic at the Cathedral 
Whoa!!! I had to look up Referential to see what it meant. Still not sure. Thank you for the fartabulous experience.
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That was from the dwarf who liked eating cheese…
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Father did not like the pantomime, so I only went couple of times, when taken by an aunt…one was certainly Aladdin as there were lots of Chinese laundry jokes. I don’t remember smut but yes, a lot of double entendres and slapstick. There’s something about an audience roaring ‘Oh no he didn’t…’ and ‘Behind you!’….
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Yes, I’ve been wondering about the actors. In addition to singing and dancing, they must have some improv training.
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Absolutely perfect christmas of course
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Of course, as the holy family intended!
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good to hess as r from you. It has been a while. Glad to be back with your travels. Bruce inKC
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Hi Bruce, great to hear from you too!
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Good to hear from you. Sorry for the typos.
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Cross-dressing, corny puns, slapstick, mangled song-lyrics, contemporary political gags and political incorrectness – all part and parcel of the panto tradition … not that I’ve been in decades!
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I could tell the were references to political parties but it mostly went over my head. There were also complaints about the train reliability and quotes from social media stars. The evil queen wanted to seduce the prince because he owned a diamond mind and she needed funds for a boob job :
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Sounds about par for the traditional show!
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Thanks for reminding me of lovely Bath Theatre Royal, though I did find it a bit of a muddle. I went to a show there during my visit to Bath in 2016 and after interval ended up sitting somewhere entirely different to where I started. Fairly embarrassing but I swear there are two dress circles. Could this be true? It’s my story anyway and I’m sticking to it.
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There were absolutely two dress circles, though the top one was closed off when I was there. What show did you see in 2016?
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I saw Dominic Cooper in The Libertine, a show I had planned to see when I got to London but it happened to open here while I was in Bath for two days. You can be lucky. It allowed me a spare night for another show in London. Hopelessly addicted to live theatre. Cheers. Coral.
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Ah, Panto—the love child of a fairy tale and a fever dream, where Snow White is barely awake, the Prince is a charisma vacuum, and the plot’s held together by fart jokes and water cannons. Truly, high art! Forget Noh and zarzuela—this is culture at its most gloriously unhinged. Ta, do share more!
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Well, so far that was my first and only Panto. I only had one night to catch a show in London, so I opted for Royal Shakespeare Co. instead of another. No fart jokes, sadly, but it was exceptionally great otherwise.
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