Contributor Alison Brown discusses the reasoning behind our upcoming production.
Did you know the pantomime can be traced back to the middle ages? Oh yes it can! The morality plays performed in village greens had much in common with es of theatre and it has evolved over hundreds of years. Before asking what makes Jane Austen’s novels so fit for the purpose of pantomime, first we must ask: what is pantomime?
In early 16th century Italy, travelling theatre companies performed plays called Commedia dell’arte consisting of stock characters depicting comic situations with an emphasis on visual comedy. It is a very physical type of theatre that uses dance, music, tumbling, acrobatics and buffoonery. These theatre companies took their plays across Europe, into France and then across the channel to Britain, where they were a huge success. What has this to do with pantomime? It’s how it all started. Pantomime today still includes the song and dance routines that were so important to Commedia dell’arte, for many years the stock characters would appear in every pantomime regardless of the story, and finally, Commdeia dell’arte was often satirical and would poke fun at contemporary issues or ideas. I hope this is starting to sound familiar.
Commedia dell’arte performers.
One of the integral elements of pantomime is that it constantly adapts to keep up with the changing mood, opinions and desires of the modern audience. Novelty is something which you might not associate with pantomime, especially as it seems to be so rooted in tradition and formulaic stories, but some of the most radical theatre has occurred in pantomimes. For example, women were not only allowed onto the stage but they actually played the part of the leading boy, and in very tight tights, too. This fashion came and went, then it came back again, and it seems at the moment to be gone again, but it’ll be back, I’m sure.
The tradition of the Commedia dell’arte to include satire is a tradition that’s still strong in pantomime. Its script is permeated with modern language, current affairs, references to the intrigues of the day, the famous and the fallen: a pantomime of ten years ago, or a hundred years ago, is not a pantomime of today. A pantomime is a play of the moment and therefore must be constantly changing and evolving.
Pantomime also takes many elements from the old music hall traditions. In the Victorian era, stars from the music halls were invited to play in pantomimes and bring their variety acts with them. It was at this time that pantomime as we know it today emerged. Writers H.J. Byron and J.R. Planché reworked old stories such as Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella to create new pantomimes, starting the modern trend of making fairy tales or folk stories the basis of the plot, stories that the audience will already be familiar with. These writers specialised in puns and word play, which has subsequently become obligatory in modern pantomime. The tradition of the pantomime Dame being played by a man also emerged from the music halls. The costumes of these cross-dressing stars would be used for comic effect by parodying the fashions of the day. So much for the staid Victorians having no sense of humour.
The Drury Lane theatre was known for it’s spectacular pantomimes; this image dates back to 1904.
So why does Jane Austen fit so perfectly with these traditions? I would say that above all, Jane Austen wrote what she knew. And what she knew was society: the follies of the people around her, the attempts to keep up appearances (sometimes in vain), the scandals, the intrigues, the ambitions and even sometimes the generosity and sense. Hidden away in all of her novels are references to these scandals which might be long forgotten by now, but her audience at the time would certainly have picked up on them. Scathing observations and mordant wit saturate her narrative and hold a mirror up to society so that it may see itself as she sees it, but perhaps exaggerated enough to cloak individuals in caricature and not be stigmatised by serious portraiture. So substitute today’s scandals for those of two hundred years ago and you have a ready-made pantomime.
Pride and Prejudice is particularly fitted to pantomime. It’s got everything a panto needs: good versus evil (well we need someone to hiss at), ridiculous characters and a storyline we all know even if we haven’t read it. Let’s just take a look at the basic outline: A father is declining into genteel poverty, his wife is obsessed with social climbing, they have five daughters, all of whom will have little or no inheritance and so must find financial support elsewhere. Their mission: Marriage. Jane has the most prospects, being a true beauty and kindly-natured, but we follow the development of Elizabeth most closely, and feel for her more than any other character.
Elizabeth is many things: intelligent, kind, pretty, impetuous and, like her creator, she has the ability to penetrate the veils of society and see people for what they are (or so she thinks), as well as having a scathing wit to unleash upon anyone who incurs her displeasure. A perfect pantomime heroine. Mr. Darcy, however, is a highly unusual hero: he doesn’t make the audience warm to him from the start, he doesn’t flatter the heroine and is downright rude about her family, he’s proud and obnoxious and proposes in the middle of the story instead of the end. To top it all he’s tarnished by his association with Mr. Bingley’s two sisters and condemned by Captain Wickham. Cue a clash of personalities, a misunderstanding, a rejected marriage proposal, an interfering Aunt who could well have struck terror into Bertram Wooster, a dashing soldier who turns out to be a cad, and of course the desperate striving of the Bennet women to ensnare a suitable husband. Already sound like a farce? Oh yes it does!
Alison Steadman as Mrs Bennet in the 1995 BBC television adaptation – virtually a dame performance!
Mrs. Bennet is a wonderful pantomime Dame. She is certainly ridiculous enough and misunderstands the heroine (as they always do) but she’s not a villain. The audience should be able to see that, although she’s ridiculous and overbearing, she’s motivated by her love for her daughters. She wants them to be married and settled so that she can be sure their futures are secure. A mother’s love is unconditional, which is probably a good thing for Mary. Lydia and Kitty are certainly ugly sisters (particularly in low-budget productions where they’re played by socks) and they bicker and argue and throw tantrums along with the best of them.
So who is the villain? Jane Austen wasn’t quite as clear-cut as that; her heroines had flaws and her villains had their good points, so who’s trying to wreck Elizabeth’s Happily Ever After? It’s Dickens! Taking a little aside just to mention that Dickens really is brill by the way, in this pantomime he’s the rival author trying to sabotage Jane Austen’s happy endings (which isn’t entirely unexpected: his novels aren’t exactly light-hearted and life-affirming). He does all within his authorial power to create misunderstandings and prejudices between the characters; between Elizabeth and Darcy, between Jane and Darcy, Lady Catherine and Darcy, in fact between everyone and Darcy.
Will anybody stop him fulfilling his dastardly plan? The Good Fairy Jane Austen will certainly give it a go. And who’s to say she won’t succeed? After all, she did some quite amazing things in her lifetime; writing successful novels, defying conventions and subverting the image of an ideal heroine and all without the slightest hint of a scandal. Will she be able to weave a happy ending for Elizabeth and Darcy? There’s only one way to find out…
Alison Brown graduated with an MA in English Literature from the University of Hertfordshire. Prior to this, she did her BA at University of the West of England, earning a first Class mark; her dissertation topic was Jane Austen and sensibility.
