Perfect Panto

To anyone who doesn’t hail from Britain, pantomime must seem as a peculiar artform. A stage show where the leading man is always played by a woman with legs up to her armpits, who is much given to slapping her thighs, to the pantomime dame – always played by a man who at some point in the show simply has to reveal that s/he is wearing about twenty set of undergarments.

 

I simply loved going to pantos as a small child, and even now adore the atmosphere of a good traditional panto. Simon Callow writes a great piece in today’s Guardian that celebrates the artform. Long may it continue.