A Beginners Guide to Panto – By Mary Brennan

The Herald’s performance critic and resident pantomime expert Mary Brennan shares her enthusiasm for that particularly British festive night out:

That man’s a wumman, that wumman’s a fella…
And that’s how it is in Cinderella.

And not just in Cinderella, but in Mother Goose, Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin and all the other fairy-tales that have been pressed into panto-service ever since theatres realised, as far back as the 18th century, that pantomime was a hugely popular entertainment and a boon to box-office.