Moral redemption, family and heartfelt generosity are at the heart of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which was first published in 1843. Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, first staged in 1892, is a classic ballet filled with toy soldiers and a sugar plum fairy.
Even older than those holiday theatrical traditions is one that dates to the middle ages: the pantomime, or panto.
Pantomimes have few morals, very little, if any, true romance and political correctness is given no quarter. Political figures are skewed and sometimes the jokes are lewd. But good always triumphs over evil.
“You can get away with a lot with a panto,” said Desmond Hussey, director of this year’s annual Theatre Now panto, Robin Hood and the Babes in the Woods, a playful and silly take on the classic tale. “You can change and bend the rules.”
The humour is coarse, yet not too foul to offend adults and goes over the heads of children, whose imaginations are kept busy by a cast of silly folk creatures who tell a tale of good and bad.
“You don’t have to stick with historical accuracy; you can break the fourth wall,” said Hussey. “You can draw the audience out and interact quite a bit. The audience becomes engaged in the playfulness with cheers and jeers for certain characters, groans for the corny jokes and joins in on the singing.”
For this production, Hussey is pulling double duty as director while playing one of a panto’s stock characters; the dame, a role always played by a male.
“Pantos are high energy, which takes some of the pressure off,” said Hussey. “You don’t have to adhere to the old standards and rules.”
However, pantomimes have certain rules of structure, including the cross-dressing dame, a villain and sidekick, magical creatures, perhaps a fairy godmother thrown in for good measure and, in the case of Robin Hood, “there are talking rabbits,” said Hussey.
The production is intentionally foolish and, according to Hussey, it helps for the actor to be a ham; outrageousness is encouraged.
“There is almost no ceiling,” he said. “You can be as silly as possible. The more you push it, the more exciting it is.”
Hussey said he had trouble casting the play, so he called in favours from some of his friends from the community.
One of those friends is longtime collaborator Blake Drezet. Prior to moving to Powell River, the pair worked professionally together in Vancouver theatre. Drezet was a designer and Hussey trained as an actor and director.
“We ended up collaborating on a play together, the play became a theatre company and we continued to work together,” said Drezet. “I never thought I’d be acting in a panto because it’s not necessarily my taste.”
Drezet said he has seen many “truly awful pantos,” but Robin Hood is not one of them.
“At their best, pantos are always playing with terrible puns and groaning jokes and cheesy audience participation. You end up singing and dancing in your chair despite yourself, it’s fun,” he said. “With a few good actors playing the dame and the villain, it holds together and can be very comedic and funny.”
In Robin Hood, Drezet gets to play the over-the-top villain, one of the standard panto characters. For the dastardly role, he even grew a moustache.
Theatre Now’s Robin Hood and the Babes in the Woods premieres Friday, December 9, at Evergreen Theatre in Powell River Recreation Complex. For more information and a schedule of shows, go to theatrenowpowellriver.ca.
