https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/12/28/my-panto-years-i/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Thu, 28 Dec 2023 21:03:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.3 https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/12/28/my-panto-years-i/#comment-1534584 Thu, 28 Dec 2023 21:03:22 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198554#comment-1534584 So vivid! This would make a wonderful film, ala “The Entertainer”. Happy New Year, and thank you for all you do.

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/12/28/my-panto-years-i/#comment-1534574 Thu, 28 Dec 2023 18:39:52 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198554#comment-1534574 fascinating!

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/12/28/my-panto-years-i/#comment-1534572 Thu, 28 Dec 2023 17:51:45 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198554#comment-1534572 It is always so lovely to read your panto piece – a Christmas delight, with the various characters (including the lavish theatre hidden behind its rather grim street front – can just imagine!) so vividly drawn, as in all your writing. Hope you have a very Happy New Year!

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/12/28/my-panto-years-i/#comment-1534520 Thu, 28 Dec 2023 11:02:54 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198554#comment-1534520 My sister and a friend went to a panto last week, they are both retired and had a great time.

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/12/28/my-panto-years-i/#comment-1534511 Thu, 28 Dec 2023 09:43:25 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198554#comment-1534511 You did not keep copies of the scripts, alas! but perhaps they have survived elsewhere. I think that you should seek them out and, if you find them, try to publish them here.

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/12/28/my-panto-years-i/#comment-1534501 Thu, 28 Dec 2023 08:28:40 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198554#comment-1534501 I love this annual storytelling. Pantomime embodies the magic of Christmas to me. My father always took us to the Palladium in Drury Lane which had the most lavish productions and big name stars of the day, mostly of TV or popular music. It made for a magical, annual family outing.
As a teenager, I acted in the school panto and as a teacher, the same. I remember one production in which I had three roles, with quick changes between each. Panto was in my blood and I found out later, it really was.
I’m currently researching and writing pieces about my great, great aunt and her husband who were music hall performers. I tried to pinpoint the exact moment when they might have met – 23rd December 1882, the first time they appeared on the bill together. Pantomime became a huge part of my great, great aunt’s employment, first as a performer and later as a ballet mistress. Her granddaughter became a famous principal boy.
Pantomime is a marvellous theatrical tradition and I am sure was an enlightening experience for the young GA as you wittily describe here. It’s almost a pantomime in itself and would make an amusing piece. With all of the booing , cheering, “it’s behind you!”s and “oh no it’s not!”s, I believe there is a piece of panto magic in all of us. “Oh yes there is!”

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/12/28/my-panto-years-i/#comment-1534496 Thu, 28 Dec 2023 08:21:24 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=198554#comment-1534496 Thank you for a lovely read…. really made my morning

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