SINCE I was a small boy I’ve loved the idea of seeing men in polka-dot frocks with balloon-sized bosoms wearing more make-up than Boots The Chemist sell at Christmas.
Now, I’ve discovered my chance to see such creatures this year will be lessened; Glasgow’s Tron Theatre has announced a women-only panto, Cinderfella, prompting a surge of disappointment that the rather awesome talents of great Dame Johnny McKnight and Wicked Queen Darren Brownlie won’t be on display.
But the loss of those actors apart, is the move to an all-female cast a positive one? Is there a point to this conceit of removing men – and will the panto be improved thanks to the gender positive discrimination?
And why would you want to subvert a comedy form that is already deliciously subversive?
Panto has long been a wonderful world of gender fluidity; men have long played women, women have played Peter Pans and Principal Boys who fall in love with women. The blurring of sexual demarcation lines has long offered young eyes, often visiting a theatre for the first time, the awareness that anybody can play anybody who can fall in love with anyone.
Yet, if males are removed from the line-up the fear is panto becomes less about the battle between Good versus Evil, about love conquering all, and more about tick-box sexual politics.
Panto queen Elaine C. Smith however reckons the removal of the Y chromosome from the line up to be immensely positive; “Considering the only picture for a century or more has been of men (with a couple of exceptional women) in panto then it’s a great way to balance things. Edinburgh is all-male as ever, Aberdeen, again men led, and across the UK not much has changed. It’s generally men who are musical directors, and writing, directing and designing pantos.”
It’s perhaps no surprise the progressive Tron Theatre has moved in this direction. Writer/director/performer Johnny McKnight’s previous panto Mother Goose featured a same sex love story, and it was not only appropriate for the times, it was a very funny panto. Last year, an all-female cast enjoyed a runaway success with the fabulous Pride and Prejudice (Sort of), featuring five females wearing frocks and Doc Martins and sometimes moustaches. Yet, Austen’s story was one of the battle of the sexes, exploring the very different sensibilities. And the Tron conceit of a woman, for example, playing a wet-shirted, stuff-shirted Darcy, offered huge comedic value.
But panto isn’t nearly so complex. What we all want is Aladdin to get the better of Abanazar and get off with the Princess (or Prince), or for Cinders to show her sisters there’s no point in cutting off your toes to spite your face.
Yet, there’s another question thrown up by the move to remove men. If male actors don’t get the chance to play Uglies, is this a de facto political statement saying it’s now wrong to laugh at a butch man in a dress? Is Dick Emery dead to us?
The Tron’s version of the Uglies will see two women play daft men instead. That may be funny, but consider this: panto has long been moving away from the Principal Boy being played by a women, with some feminist groups saying the character objectifies women. (An Anita Harris wearing sexy boots or Pamela Anderson wearing very little of anything has been booed off stage.) But if the new Cinderella sees women send up masculinity, is this not equally wrong?
And had this all-female casting policy been around in the past fifty years we would have been denied the drag talents of the likes of Stanley Baxter, Rikki Fulton and Jack Milroy (who once played two wonderful bus conductresses; ‘Time and tide and the Corporation buses wait for no man’) and Johnny Beattie. We’d have shut the door to the great campery of performers such as Gerard Kelly, Allan Stewart and John Barrowman.
And what of the future? If we become too positive in our discrimination are we denying a Frankie Boyle or a Kevin Bridges, should they fancy, (however unlikely) a stint in a frock?
What’s undeniable is any professional theatre which announced an all-male panto cast would be bombarded with something heavier than fake custard pies.
There is little doubt the Tron panto has an excellent line-up in the likes of Sally Reid, Hannah Jarrett-Scott (of Pride and Prejudice success) and Jo Freer. There is little doubt Johnny McKnight is an exceptionally clever writer. But I’d rather he was putting on the lip gloss and appearing alongside the great line-up of women. For there’s a worry he’s denying the opportunity for wide-eyed little Johnnys out there to become the role model he’s become.
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