h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Audience Participation in Pantomime - A46502093
Author: David B - Singing Librarian Owl - U201818

Author: David B, Singing Librarian Owl, U201818

Entry: Audience Participation in Pantomime, A46502093

Written in response to the latest challenge from The Stretcher which asked us to write about something emotionally overblown. I tried to think about times when the British public gets emotionally overblown in public, and "it's behind you!" came to mind.

A curious interpretation of the challenge...

I'd suggest:

"In conventional theatre, it is as though one wall of the set is visible to the actors, but the audience can see through it, allowing the actors to pretend the audience simply does not exist."

-->

"With stages usually having three walls, the fourth wall is a metaphor for the barrier between the fiction of a play and the reality of the audience watching it."

Otherwise a good entry

Alex

Thanks for the suggestion. I have adopted it in adapted form.

Nicely done, fits the skirt analogy - short enough to be interesting, long enough to cover the subject.

And fun for people unfamiliar with panto as an art form. Probably for people who have fond memories of it, as well.

Wonderful, it really gives you the impression of being there.

One of your footnotes has an 'if' instead of an 'of', I think.

Great entry though! The most fun I've ever had at a panto was when we got a box for my sister's 21st birthday and took some of her friends along. One of her friends had never ever seen a panto before, even on TV, despite living in the UK her whole life. Her face when the audience participation started was so funny - she looked so confused, bless her! By the end she was shouting as loudly as any of us, and was thrilled when the actors acknowledged us in the box

I don't think it's possible to be too old for panto

Ms GB

Exactly fits the bill.

Hey great entry.

I was stage crew for a panto at college, it was knackereing, but there was a song about Irn-Bru to cover one of our louder scene changes, and i got to make it snow as the end!

mini

A song about Irn-Bru? You HAVE to share!

hmm



Irn-Bru's the wan fur me
Gies ye strenth and lotsa bottle
Bright orange drink ye'll come tae me
When i' feelin Grumpy

When the bubbles fizz right up
Fae the bottom of ma cup
ye cannae beat a right guid sup
of this brilliant ginger.



it was fun to sing backstage whilst shipting dwarf beds off their five foot high platform and puttint hte palace back in place.

mini

What's the tune?

i would have to sing it to you, it was written especially for the show.

mini

You're feeling Grumpy? Nice

That's the great thing about proper panto, all the jokes the adults get but the kids don't, and the promises to explain 'when you're older'...

Ah, pantomime... Great fun to be in. Bloody awful to sit through Also a doddle to write, as by the time you've got that little lot in, there's not much room for anything else.

Lovely Entry!

Your mention of the connection with Rocky Horror started a discussion at my place about the fact that in recent years, people have started doing that with 'The Sound of Music', a singalong with the movie, including a participation kit.

It is actually fun belting the music out from the safety of the audience.

Thanks for spotting the typo, Cyzaki!

dmitri, I think if anyone starts doing audience participation with the stage show of the Sound of Music, I might have to kill them! It could be quite fun with the film, though.

I love panto, but hate Marmite.

A remarkably serious entry about pantomime!

Don't the origins of panto go back a long way - at least as far as the Mediaeval mystery and miracle plays?

I noticed that, in the sentence talking about the villain, you say 'the actor playing them'. It would be good to avoid this, though you might have to talk about 'villains' through the whole sentence to do so.

Origins of panto go back into antiquity, but it's only from the eighteenth century onwards that it becomes even vaguely recognisable as the form we know today. Even then, you'd be hard pressed to recognise anything before about the 1880s as anything like modern panto.

The other Entries on panto cover the origins a bit more, I just wanted to focus on the shouting!