|
Author
|
Comment
|
Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/11/04 6:08 pm)
|
Sleeping Beauty at the Barbican
If you're anywhere near London over the next four weeks and you
can spare the time and the money, you should go see Sleeping
Beauty at the Barbican, put on by the temporarily homeless
New Vic company. It's excellent! Very funny, genuinely frightening
and tense, sad in parts. It's really a treat.
And there are lots of kids who love it and shriek at the scary parts, play on the stage during intermission, slide down the bannisters before the show, laugh at the funny parts, and say "liar" in voice full of threat and anger when appropriate. And I liked that.
Edited by: Veronica Schanoes at: 12/11/04 6:08 pm
|
Black Sheep
Registered User
(12/16/04 12:21 pm)
|
Pantos
Black Sheep: I love pantomimes!
Audience: O no he doesn't!
Sheep: O yes I do!
:)
|
Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/16/04 2:59 pm)
|
Re: Pantos
Oooh, I love pantos too! I just saw my first one yesterday (Dick Whittington)--but the Barbican's Sleeping Beauty isn't a panto. I think it's clearly panto-influenced, but it's far more of a "serious theater" for kids thing.
I go see Snow White as a panto next week, though! I'm so excited.
|
Black Sheep
Registered User
(12/17/04 7:47 am)
|
Panto?
He's behind you! (only kidding children...)
Erm... the Barbican's SB is fairy tale based theatre aimed at children and on at Christmas so it pretty much fits the definition of panto although the serious luvvies at the Vic might choose not to acknowledge that because of panto's traditionally low-brow connotations... I wonder if there's a God of Pantoness we could pray to for the answer?
O no there isn't! (sorry... I can't help it...)
:)
|
Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/17/04 11:48 am)
|
Re: Panto?
It is and does, but it also dispenses with many of the most recognizable panto conventions that I know of. For one thing, there's no interaction with the audience (no he's behind you, no it isn't, booing, hissing kind of stuff). There's no real baddie. There's no real dame--the prince's ogress mother is played by a man, but she's not played for laughs, and there isn't really any smutty jokes/banter. It's funny, but not really a joke-a-minute, like the panto I saw. The songs aren't re-done popular songs. It's also listed seperately from the pantos in the listings in magazines and papers that I've seen--it's listed in the same category as His Dark Materials.
It seems far more like a dark musical based on a fairy tale to me than it seems like a panto, but perhaps I'm judging too stringently? I can see this going up in NYC, for instance, in a way that I think that pantos wouldn't transfer.
Edited by: Veronica Schanoes at: 12/17/04 11:49 am
|
Black Sheep
Registered User
(12/17/04 12:47 pm)
|
Ahh!
You're probably right... you've seen it after all.
Interestingly there was a segment about defining different types of pantos on the BBC 2 (tv) "Culture Show" (weekly arts roundup) last night so it's on my mind at the moment.
BTW has anyone seen the new opera of "The Little Prince"? It's supposed to be excellent but I missed it when it was televised over here recently.
|
Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/17/04 1:28 pm)
|
Re: Ahh!
That sound really neat. I wish I had a TV.
Have you seen this panto
website? It's really neat, with lots of old pictures!
|
Black Sheep
Unregistered User
(12/18/04 9:01 am)
|
Panto and Prince
Thank you for the panto website Veronica it's wonderful.
I'd decided last night that my definition of the perfect panto would be a sort of indoor carnival on a fairy tale theme, performed at midwinter and aimed at a family audience, with lots of transgressive elements. It would have to include trangendering (at least the Dame and preferably the principle boy too), audience participation, old jokes so old that they shouldn't be funny but still are, and cutting edge satire.
So the average local panto is perfect then IMO...
There's a Little Prince website with a page on the new opera here and it plays one of the songs too:
www.lepetitprince.com/en/...69d02b413b
|
