‘Just bring your joy’: Inside Lighthouse Theatre’s new all-ages holiday pantomime
There are no mimes in pantomime.
So said Derek Ritschel, artistic director of Lighthouse Festival, in an interview with Intermission. Next week, the company opens Jack and the Beanstalk, a production Ritschel hopes will inaugurate a new tradition in the Port Dover and Port Colborne communities that Lighthouse serves: an annual holiday pantomime.
Although the pantomime — or “panto,” for short — is a thriving tradition with a long history, especially in the UK, it’s relatively little-known in Canada. According to Ritschel and Jack and the Beanstalk’s director Jonathan Ellul, the confusion of mime with pantomime is a common misconception. “I would say that 85 per cent of our audience has no idea what a panto is,” said Ritschel.
But if a panto isn’t the Marcel Marceau-show, what the heck is it?
“It’s as though the Muppets were going to do their version of Jack and the Beanstalk, but we got hold of the script,” said Ellul. “In terms of the humour, I always think panto must have been the precursor for all those Bugs Bunny cartoons. It’s a heightened telling of a familiar story, and it’s going to go every which way.”
In other words, a pantomime takes a well-known fairy tale, throws it in a blender, and adds a healthy dose of zany hijinks. A traditional pantomime features a “pants role,” or a young male hero played by a woman, as well as a “pantomime dame” in drag. (Though the latter role is “more Miss Piggy than RuPaul,” said Ellul.)
Panto hallmarks also include a good fairy, an over-the-top villain, original songs, a slapstick chase scene, contemporary references to the local community, and plenty of audience participation. (A classic example: yelling “THERE’S A MONSTER BEHIND YOU!” at a dim-witted character who just won’t take the audience’s advice.) Theatregoers can expect all this and more from Lighthouse Festival’s Jack and the Beanstalk.
If the experience sounds overwhelming, fear not. The level of panto knowledge required of a first-time audience member is none whatsoever. “We’re going to be setting up those things within the show,” Ellul assured me. “The audience member who’s never seen [a panto] will be able to fully partake.”
There’s no question that Jack in the Beanstalk’s audiences will be in good hands: Ellul and Ritschel have assembled a dazzling team of Canadian comic talent. The cast of seven includes Eliza-Jane Scott as Jack, Cyrus Lane as the Villain, and Lori Nancy Kalamanski as the Fairy. “It’s been amazing for me to watch how they’re feeding off each other and coming together as an ensemble,” Ellul confided. “It’s been amazing to watch seven individual clowns develop.”
According to Ellul, once playwright Ken MacDougall knew the casting, he tailored the script to fit the voices and talents of each actor. Even so, Ellul continued, “the script is very much a blueprint. There’s a setup and a joke, with the caveat that, if you’ve got a better one, let’s hear it in the rehearsal room. [The actors] didn’t waste a second.”
On the day I spoke to Ellul and Ritschel, comic genius had struck twice. Eliza-Jane Scott had “realized that Jack didn’t have a moment where he kind of encapsulated everything,” Ellul told me. “So she went home and wrote a song based on a line that was in the script and summarized… everything that [Jack] had been through. She sent it as an email and I was listening…on my phone in a restaurant. I was laughing so hard I was in convulsions, all by myself — I looked like a crazy man in hysterics in the corner.”
Meanwhile, Ellul continued, Lane had completely rewritten the lyrics for the Villain’s big musical number, “and made it current and topical.”
Pantomime’s embrace of improvisation means the show will keep transforming even after it opens. “The panto is like the ultimate playground for theatre,” said Ritschel. You get to interact with the audience and feed off [their] energy. If the audience gives you something that night, it’s going to be a different show.”
Unlike in more serious theat-ah, “the greatest gift that can happen is that somebody’s cellphone goes off in the audience,” Ellul added. “These [actors] will stop and say, ‘you better get it.’”
Ellul and Ritschel took care to stress that all this fairy-tale funny business isn’t just for kids: this Jack and the Beanstalk has jokes for all ages. In fact, one of Panto’s superpowers is its ability to get every generation cackling.
“I don’t think there’s anything more powerful than seeing three generations of a family laugh together in a theatre,” said Ritschel. “That doesn’t happen in other genres.”
Although this is the first time Lighthouse Theatre has staged a holiday panto, Ritschel and Ellul hope this is only the beginning of a new tradition.
“The best thing I could hope for,” said Ellul, “is that people come out with a seed planted…‘Next year we’re bringing the grandparents, too.’”
Panto “doesn’t care where you’re from,” insisted Ritschel. “[It] doesn’t care what other theatres you go to. It doesn’t care what your age is. Doesn’t care what your background is.”
So what does pantomime care about?
“Joy,” said Ritschel. “Don’t worry about anything else. Just bring your joy.”
Jack and the Beanstalk opens at the Lighthouse Theatre in Port Dover on November 30 and runs until December 9. In Port Colborne, the production opens at the Roselawn Theatre on December 13 and runs until December 17. You can learn more about the show here.
Nathaniel Hanula-James
Nathaniel Hanula-James is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who has worked across Canada as a dramaturg, playwright, performer, and administrator.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Photo by Trudie Lee.
A Christmas Carol makes a triumphant return to Theatre Calgary
“It brings me a lot of joy to know that the generations of Calgarians who saw this show when they were a young person are now, 37 years later, bringing their sons and daughters,” says artistic director Stafford Arima.
iPhoto caption: Photo of Mark Crawford courtesy of Theatre Aquarius.
Mark Crawford returns to Theatre Aquarius as A Christmas Story’s nostalgic narrator
“There’s a beautiful song that Ralphie’s mother, who’s played by Jamie McRoberts, sings to her boys in act two,” said Crawford. “I almost started weeping [when I first heard it] — the tenderness of a mom taking care of her kids in this moment, and [me] standing there as the adult version of one of those kids. I think that’s so identifiable for people: those moments of tenderness and love between this family.”
iPhoto caption: I Don't Even Miss You photo by Eden Graham.
Factory Theatre welcomes new audiences with shows that explore human connection
“I feel like I’m really looking to theatre for joy right now,” says artistic director Mel Hague. “I don’t mean works that are specifically funny or happy. I’m talking about something deeper where you can feel connected to the art on stage, the space that’s hosting it, the other people in the audience, and yourself.”
iPhoto caption: J. Kelly Nestruck headshot courtesy of The Globe and Mail.
An exit interview with Globe and Mail theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck
J. Kelly Nestruck has left the building. (Or at least the aisle seat.)
iPhoto caption: Photo of Gary Reineke courtesy of Allegra Fulton.
Remembering Gary Reineke, the man who knew how to enter
Gary couldn’t abide a bad show. This was a man who looked imperiously down his nose. You knew judgment was surely there at the tip, and that it would not be forgiving. He couldn’t stand a bad actor.
iPhoto caption: The cast and creative team of Cinderella at Lighthouse Festival Theatre. Photo courtesy of Lighthouse Festival Theatre.
Lighthouse Festival’s holiday pantomime returns for a second year of family-friendly fun
As per panto tradition, Cinderella will feature audience call-and-response, topical zingers, and loving nods to the local community, framed by an irreverent retelling of a classic fairytale. Playwright Ken MacDougall will once again pen the script for the show.
iPhoto caption: Headshot courtesy of Emily Jung.
"I want theatre to be so ingrained in everyone's day-to-day life, that it becomes natural to go see a show that's happening locally,” says Jung. “It should be an integral part of society for people to be able to access a cultural space, go there, and experience something that energizes them."
iPhoto caption: Photo of Mark Crawford courtesy of Theatre Aquarius.
Mark Crawford returns to Theatre Aquarius as A Christmas Story’s nostalgic narrator
“There’s a beautiful song that Ralphie’s mother, who’s played by Jamie McRoberts, sings to her boys in act two,” said Crawford. “I almost started weeping [when I first heard it] — the tenderness of a mom taking care of her kids in this moment, and [me] standing there as the adult version of one of those kids. I think that’s so identifiable for people: those moments of tenderness and love between this family.”
iPhoto caption: The cast and creative team of Cinderella at Lighthouse Festival Theatre. Photo courtesy of Lighthouse Festival Theatre.
Lighthouse Festival’s holiday pantomime returns for a second year of family-friendly fun
As per panto tradition, Cinderella will feature audience call-and-response, topical zingers, and loving nods to the local community, framed by an irreverent retelling of a classic fairytale. Playwright Ken MacDougall will once again pen the script for the show.
iPhoto caption: The cast of Tunnel Runners. Photo by Aza Jin.
Tunnel Runners takes listeners on a podcast journey through Toronto’s hidden chasms
If you’re tempted to go spelunking and find out for yourself just what lies beyond the curve of a TTC tunnel, pop in your earbuds and press play on Tunnel Runners, a new seven-part original audio drama from CBC’s PlayME podcast.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Marc Chalifoux.
At Next Stage 2024, two shows complicate the meaning of a night out
Gemini, by Louise Casemore, and Prude, by Lou Campbell, explore the hospitality industry and bar culture from different perspectives.
iPhoto caption: Headshot courtesy of Byron Laviolette.
Speaking in Draft: Byron Laviolette
“Right now, the creation-to-production process for a lot of people is from the Toronto Fringe to — hopefully — some theatre recommender grants, to a workshop production, to maybe an actual production,” says What The Festival co-founder Byron Laviolette. “But the realities of mounting a show at the Fringe don’t translate to a two-week run at the Extraspace at Tarragon. Peoples’ appetites are different. Yet we don’t train or support people to translate their shows into those different contexts."
Comments