Photo: Antonio Olmos/The Guardian.
Debbie Chazen, Gemma Barnett and Josh Glanc, the stars of JW3’s holiday pantomime in London.
There’s a kind of Christmas entertainment in England (English friends: correct me if I am describing this wrong) called a pantomime, or panto. I have read about it but never seen it. It’s kind of like the old, slapstick Punch and Judy show, but without puppets.
This year, a comedy troupe in London is doing a takeoff of Christmas panto in a Jewish storytelling style.
Deborah Linton writes at the Guardian, “What else would you call ‘Britain’s first professional Jewish pantomime’ but Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig? And where else would you set it but north London, at Hanukah? At the JW3 centre in London – an arts and community venue. …
“The cast of the first professional stage production to merge two great traditions in Jewish storytelling and festive panto are gathered around a table sharing their experiences of both. And the crossover, it transpires, is richer and more obvious than one might first imagine.
“Comedy, community, a fairytale quest and a flawed hero are ‘at the heart of every panto,’ says the show’s writer, Nick Cassenbaum. ‘But I think it comes from … the Talmud, too.’ …
“So, too, the panto dame, he says – in this instance Mother Hoodman, Red’s eccentric mum who appears on stage heavily made up, wigged and wearing a voluminous dress modeled on a Hanukah dreidel singing You Spin Me Round – has a natural home in both traditions. ‘A panto dame is warm, loving and says the wrong thing. It’s a Jewish mother,’ says Cassenbaum. …
“Audiences will be immersed in a production that combines Jewish humour and music (imagine new lyrics to Jewish artists including Amy Winehouse, Doja Cat, Paul Simon and Craig David) with traditional panto magic – lots of slapstick comedy, a scene where the leads get lost in the woods, and cartoonish baddies – as it transposes the millennia-old Hanukah miracle into a fairytale fit for 2023.
“Cassenbaum’s premise is that Red, a hard-working young scientist pushing against the plans her mum – the dame – has for her to marry a Jewish doctor, sets out on a quest to find enough sustainable energy to power her village through Hanukah. … The wolf, the main antagonist in the storybook version, is replaced here by a hyper-capitalist pig, the best known non-kosher animal of the lot. Although, Cassenbaum explains, ‘in my mind, all the characters are Jewish, even the pig, who as a city boy who made a lot of money under Thatcher, maybe isn’t so open about his Jewishness.’
“Cassenbaum, a former street performer … was interested ‘in how we could hold both things – something that was really British, all the panto techniques, but something that also felt unashamedly Jewish. With panto, you have to pick from the canon of fairytales. Red Riding Hood is such a short story, you’re not so set with the script. I wanted to make something that can hold Jewish traditions, dense Jewish jokes and reflect certain Jewish archetypes, so you’ll see the ex-black-cab driver and a wolf who is a neurotic mess.’ …
“It mirrors the generational Jewish experience – and the immigrant humor that accompanies it. ‘Humor is our biggest cultural export. It’s truth humor,’ says Josh Glanc, an award-winning Australian comedian who plays the pig. …
” ‘In British popular theatre, Jews were there from the [beginning] – Bud Flanagan (who sang the theme tune to Dad’s Army), writers Barry Cryer and Marty Feldman – but they weren’t “out.” Then, with more modern comedians, like Matt Lucas and Sacha Baron Cohen, the Jewishness is secondary to the joke. Through it all, there’s something about using community and humor as a way of fitting in and being part of things, a means of assimilation.’
“Gemma Barnett, who plays Red, agrees. ‘It’s intense self-awareness,’ she says. … ‘Red’s constantly trying to work out if she believes what her mum believes. I love the character.’ …
“East London-born musical director Josh Middleton, a world-leading klezmer (eastern and central European Jewish folk) musician, has given Streisand and other Jewish artists a klezmer flavor, via accordion and violin live on stage, as well as a lyrical rewrite and song sheet, in pure panto style. …
“ ‘Let’s take the premise of rewriting pop songs, because that’s what people expect at panto, but let’s do people of Jewish descent. … I want them to recognize the songs and enjoy that familiarity, and I want them to feel they’re at a Jewish panto,’ says Middleton.”
More at the Guardian, here. No paywall, but they do rely on donations.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 