A BOX AT THE PANTOMIME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 136, 30 January 1942, Page 14

A BOX AT THE PANTOMIME

Reactions of a Critic With a Small Daughter T issome 13 years since I, and the rest of New Zealand, have had the opportunity to see a genuine old-style pantomime by a visiting company, and when I saw the J.C.W. show Aladdin in Wellington the

other afternoon, I had, through the courtesy of Providence and the management, a stage box and a small daughter to share it-two distinct advantages toward the proper enjoyment of this type of entertainment unknown to me 13 years ago. It would be hard to say whether I got more fun out of watching the stage at such close quarters that I could see what was going on in the wings and that one of the chorus girls had a small piece of sticking-plaster on one leg, or out of watching the rapt expression on my six-year-old’s face. This expression was compounded of delight, bewilderment, and something close to fear. There was fear in her face when the Wicked Wizard Abanazar was working his magic anda tribute perhaps to the respect for law and order which we have already inculcated in her-when the two _ buffoonpolicemen were " arresting" malefactors with much whacking of dummy truncheons. Probably delight predominated, but I have a feeling that pantomimes are like Disney cartoons, Alice in Wonderland, and the electric trains which some parents give their children for Christmas, in that they are all, to some extent, excuses for grown-ups to enjoy themselves while pretending that they are only making the children happy. With older children it is probably different, but speaking from experience I doubt whether the average child of six or thereabouts can really appreciate half of what makes a pantomime, a Disney film, or the Alice books so enjoyable to adults (I have never been able to afford an electric train). However much we like to delude ourselves, these are entertainments designed primarily to appeal to the youthfulness in adults. * % * ET I don’t want you to think that my small daughter didn’t get what would have been her money’s worth if we hadn’t been the guests of the management. She certainly did. She was, of course, in a much more favoured position than her contemporaries in the audience. In order to make her exercise some restraint in the eating. of a choc-bomb

which had gone soft, I had to point out, almost as soon as we were seated, that her position in the box put her very much in the public eye and, indeed, that if the King and Queen (or-Comrade Stalin or Mr. Roosevelt) had been present, these were the very seats they would have occupied. This, I am sad to say, seemed to impress her (the little snob!) more than anything in the show itself. Also, when the Widow Twankey, during an excursion off the stage among the audience, advanced upon our box and bestowed a smacking kiss upon me, her father, my six-year-old appeared to regard this as the very highest honour that anybody could aspire to, a % * UT I must say something about the show and I'll say that, although by some standards there was a good deal to criticise-some rough edges on the acting, nothing very new or startling about the illusions of the Great Levante as Abanazar (he is billed as the star), and no singing voices worth mentioning (the orchestra has. to play very loudly to cover this fault)-yet by the standards which, as a father taking his daughter to her first " panto," I was prepared to apply to this show, I found a very great deal to enjoy-particularly the dancing of the ballet (the tiny tots are almost as good as the older girls), the bright dressing, the shadow-show by " Melba" (I could see the performer at work behind her screen, and the traditional slapstick of Ed. Edwards (an excellent " Dame"), Ronald Shand, Joe Valli, and the other clowns. In a film, their custard-pie brand of foolery would probably evoke in me no more than superior disdain, but a pantomime is different. It certainly is. In one notable respect, however, flesh and blood performers suffer badly because of the film-viewing habit; it is hard for an audience accustomed to the movies to remember that stage artists appreciate, and are entitled to, applause. Yes, I liked Aladdin. I hope you will not misunderstand if I say that being able to see the chorus-girls at such close

quarters was an advantage.

G.

M.