Life

Leona O'Neill: Pantos are pure Christmas – oh yes, they are

You may well roll your eyes and say bah-humbug but I say pantos are hilarious, inventive, entertaining, timeless and magical, writes Leona O'Neill. So bah-humbug yourself

Jack the the Beanstalk is on at Derry’s Millennium Forum until December 31 Picture: Tom Heaney
Jack the the Beanstalk is on at Derry’s Millennium Forum until December 31 Picture: Tom Heaney Jack the the Beanstalk is on at Derry’s Millennium Forum until December 31 Picture: Tom Heaney

I TOOK my youngest children on our annual pilgrimage to panto country last week. We went to see Jack the the Beanstalk at Derry’s Millennium Forum.

It’s definitely an embedded Christmas tradition for us. As children my parents would have taken us kids every year. It was a real family affair, with aunts and uncles braving the snow to attend. It was always Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk or Snow White in rotation. But no two shows were the same.

Back in those days sets fell down, people forgot their words and the electricity went out. But no-one cared. It was all part of the fun. It was magical and it sounded the festive klaxon that Christmas and Santa were mere weeks away.

I want to create the same memories with my own children. When I told my kids I had panto tickets they were so excited to go. After spending a day chasing the news, and watching grumpy, Christmas-hating people roll their eyes and look at me sympathetically when I said I was going to the panto that night – I wasn’t just quite as jump-on-the-sofa enthusiastic about it.

But two minutes into the show and with the appearance of a beautiful fairy Godmother speaking in rhyme in a glittering green dress and a May McFetridge-esque Dame in a pink wing making jokes about the RHI scandal and I was totally hypnotised by pure panto magic.

My children were enthralled by the characters – the village idiot and his trusty but severely flatulent cow Daisy, the beautiful princess whose love for a brave peasant boy won over her materialistic royal father, a pale faced, dark eyed bad guy whose presence was always signalled by ominous music and the dame who peppered every single conversation with innuendo the children didn’t comprehend but that had the adults laughing out loud.

We watched as the ancient art of pantomime played out in front of us, firing on all cylinders, celebrating the unique interaction that only that particular style of theatre can come close to.

We laughed at the slapstick comedy, as the men dressed flamboyantly as women, as the idiots did idiotic things. We smiled when the love story unfolded, the princess got her prince, the peasants with a moral tale to teach got their message across.

We booed at the bad guy and the evil giant. We cheered as the fairy godmother did her thing and the giant was slain. We sang along with the songs. We sighed with relief as good conquered evil and we all went home happy.

This panto was so much more than just an old story regurgitated every year at Christmas time. I looked around at the families all sat in rows. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, grannies and grandads all out for the evening, all getting something from the stage, all being entertained by the shenanigans and all forgetting about the not-so-fabulous world outside the theatre doors.

I saw as the panto brought shock, awe and delight to little children more accustomed to video games than live theatres. I saw the audience and performers forming an unbreakable bond – so much so that they were mobbed by children when they danced off the stage and into the auditorium.

It is for many children, their first real taste of theatre and the arts. By making it fun, interactive, thrilling, bright and beautiful we are planting a seed for artistic and cultural appreciation to grow. And that could only be a good thing. It brings families together for a fun night out, and that can’t be bad either.

Some people roll their eyes and say ‘rather you than me’ when you say you’re going to see a panto. Some say panto is a place washed-up soap stars go to die. Some say panto is crass. I say ‘oh no it isn’t’ – it’s magical, it’s hilarious, it will never be behind us and it’s pure Christmas.