I just wanna drink 'till I'm not thirsty
I just wanna sleep 'till I'm not tired
I just wanna drive 'till I run out of highway
into the Purple Sky
I just wanna sleep 'till I'm not tired
I just wanna drive 'till I run out of highway
into the Purple Sky
- Kid Rock, "Purple Sky"
Allow me to wander down our first, and certainly not the last, tangent along this road. Something hit me hard when typing last night and it has taken me some time to put into words, but quite simply it is this:
Allow me to wander down our first, and certainly not the last, tangent along this road. Something hit me hard when typing last night and it has taken me some time to put into words, but quite simply it is this:
Pantomime is weird, isn't it?
And uniquely British.
As many of you know, I spent a year on my life working aboard cruise ships. The crew of my first ship came from 72 different countries and lead to a myriad of interesting conversations and different points of view. One particular conversation comes to mind as I discussed with a couple of colleagues (a Brazilian and a South African) about my time on stage and in the question was raised as to what I found most fun. My answer, naturally, was the annual pantomime. I received two utterly blank faces as a reply.
Now, I was distantly aware that Pantomime was very much a British thing, but it hadn't occurred to me how hard it would be to explain to someone with no common frame of reference.
"What is this 'Panto'?"
"Oh, you know: "He's behind you!""
...
""Oh no he isn't!" "Oh yes he is!""
...
"Funny man in drag?"
...
"Nothing?"
...
"Ummm... Damn."
I am not a patriotic person. You won't see me out waving flags even in the most nationalistic circumstance (the Olympics went right over my head), but if I'm proud of anything in this country it is that no matter how bad a child may be doing in school, no matter how poor their knowledge of times tables or punctuation, the vast majority know precisely when and where to cheer, boo, hiss and interact in a Pantomime environment before they are 5 years old.
For that, Great Britain, I salute you all.
I will add that, to my relief, two Irish crew and a Canadian knew what I was on about and we managed to put together a rough explanation I'm not sure it really helped, to be honest. Panto is something that has to be experienced, rather than explained. I'd love to invite those two confused crew members to a Panto, but I fear that they wouldn't understand it until it was too late to get involved. In Britain we are born with Panto, we grow up with it, it is part of us, if only for one evening a year. A small piece of continuity running through our collective psyche. I cannot conceive of a greater gift each Christmas.
Anyway, navel-gazing aside, there is a job to be done!
I have completed a five page treatment for one of my concepts for a Panto. This was done in one big burst that kept me awake till 3am because I was afraid that if I didn't write it all down then parts would slip away in the night. I get the feeling that I'll end up creating a few outlines of panto scripts for all the various stories and go with whichever feels the most 'right'. Luckily I have you to help me decide!
I'm not going to go into huge detail right now as many parts are still in flux, but how about a few lines from the first page? As always, we begin with a Fairy...
I’m sorry, I’m not quite with it.
I've just had so much to do.
Twelve months to weave a story
And boy have I got one for you!
Its about this girl and her sisters,
a slipper, a prince and a ball!
Oh dear! You've got me going now!
I don’t want to spoil it all!
Can you tell what it is yet?
And uniquely British.
As many of you know, I spent a year on my life working aboard cruise ships. The crew of my first ship came from 72 different countries and lead to a myriad of interesting conversations and different points of view. One particular conversation comes to mind as I discussed with a couple of colleagues (a Brazilian and a South African) about my time on stage and in the question was raised as to what I found most fun. My answer, naturally, was the annual pantomime. I received two utterly blank faces as a reply.
Now, I was distantly aware that Pantomime was very much a British thing, but it hadn't occurred to me how hard it would be to explain to someone with no common frame of reference.
"What is this 'Panto'?"
"Oh, you know: "He's behind you!""
...
""Oh no he isn't!" "Oh yes he is!""
...
"Funny man in drag?"
...
"Nothing?"
...
"Ummm... Damn."
I am not a patriotic person. You won't see me out waving flags even in the most nationalistic circumstance (the Olympics went right over my head), but if I'm proud of anything in this country it is that no matter how bad a child may be doing in school, no matter how poor their knowledge of times tables or punctuation, the vast majority know precisely when and where to cheer, boo, hiss and interact in a Pantomime environment before they are 5 years old.
For that, Great Britain, I salute you all.
I will add that, to my relief, two Irish crew and a Canadian knew what I was on about and we managed to put together a rough explanation I'm not sure it really helped, to be honest. Panto is something that has to be experienced, rather than explained. I'd love to invite those two confused crew members to a Panto, but I fear that they wouldn't understand it until it was too late to get involved. In Britain we are born with Panto, we grow up with it, it is part of us, if only for one evening a year. A small piece of continuity running through our collective psyche. I cannot conceive of a greater gift each Christmas.
Anyway, navel-gazing aside, there is a job to be done!
I have completed a five page treatment for one of my concepts for a Panto. This was done in one big burst that kept me awake till 3am because I was afraid that if I didn't write it all down then parts would slip away in the night. I get the feeling that I'll end up creating a few outlines of panto scripts for all the various stories and go with whichever feels the most 'right'. Luckily I have you to help me decide!
I'm not going to go into huge detail right now as many parts are still in flux, but how about a few lines from the first page? As always, we begin with a Fairy...
I’m sorry, I’m not quite with it.
I've just had so much to do.
Twelve months to weave a story
And boy have I got one for you!
Its about this girl and her sisters,
a slipper, a prince and a ball!
Oh dear! You've got me going now!
I don’t want to spoil it all!
Can you tell what it is yet?
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