Pantomime—the art or technique of conveying
emotions, actions, feelings, etc., by gestures without (any believable) speech.
Luckily for my equanimity I quite enjoy nonsensical but clever
children’s pantomimes.
Way back, in London, about 70 or 65 years ago, I can remember willingly
going to see a Christmas pantomime or two, probably when accompanying one of my
sisters when taking one or two of their children as a Christmas treat.
I also remember just a few years ago watching a rare but very
good Canadian pantomime on TV, which starred Canada’s wonderful ballerina,
Karin Kain, teamed up, incongruously, with ‘Onslow’ of the Brit TV show Keeping up
Appearances.
‘Onslow’, I don’t know his real name, had packed houses of young
Canadian children collapsing in merriment with the age-old simple chestnut
presentations of British juvenile farce.
You know. Where the awful
villain or other evil character typically creeps up behind the clueless hero
and the children call out excitedly to warn their jolly favorite of the danger...
“There he is right behind you”.
“No he’s not, I
just looked and no one was there”.
“He ran round the
other way in front of you while you were looking behind
you”.
“Of course he didn’t.
There’s no one there”.
“Oh, yes there is.
He’s right there, turn round the other way”
… and so it goes on and on, absolute nonsense but wonderfully
absorbing for young humour-loving children.
And some others.
No comments:
Post a Comment