Britain's What's On Event Guide
Pantomime is Never What it Used to Be
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester, Leicestershire LE1 6QL
Monday 2 Dec 2024
7:30pmMembers free (individual membership for whole season £35; for details and to join see website)
Non-members £7; students £3
Organised by
Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society
Spread the word
About this Event
Pantomime is Never What it Used to Be
The Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society’s Arthur and Jean Humphreys lecture
Professor Katherine Newey, BA, PhD.
Professor of Theatre History, University of Exeter
Although the nineteenth century is widely regarded as the ‘Golden Age’ of pantomime, the pantomime form was in a process of constant evolution throughout the century. Historically, pantomime is distinguished by change and its knowing self-referentiality. But there’s one constant – that Pantomime is not what it used to be. Indeed, pantomime is never what it used to be. The constant in pantomime is nostalgia, which is paradoxically paired with sensation and novelty. Victorian pantomime was the vehicle for the representation of the latest, the new, the fads, the fashions of the times.
In my lecture I’ll explore the ways in which the pantomimes we see today have their roots in the Victorian pantomime, and its melding of the Harlequinade of the classic commedia dell’arte with the robust, rude and knockabout humour of the Clown and the Dame.
Kate Newey is Professor of Theatre History at the University of Exeter. Her work focuses on women’s writing and nineteenth century British popular theatre. She has published academic books and essays on John Ruskin, Victorian women playwrights, and the politics of the pantomime. She has held research Fellowships at Harvard University, the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre, University of Texas (Austin). She is currently leading a large-scale project funded by the European Research Council, ‘Women’s Transnational Theatre Networks, 1789-1914.’
Professor Katherine Newey, BA, PhD.
Professor of Theatre History, University of Exeter
Although the nineteenth century is widely regarded as the ‘Golden Age’ of pantomime, the pantomime form was in a process of constant evolution throughout the century. Historically, pantomime is distinguished by change and its knowing self-referentiality. But there’s one constant – that Pantomime is not what it used to be. Indeed, pantomime is never what it used to be. The constant in pantomime is nostalgia, which is paradoxically paired with sensation and novelty. Victorian pantomime was the vehicle for the representation of the latest, the new, the fads, the fashions of the times.
In my lecture I’ll explore the ways in which the pantomimes we see today have their roots in the Victorian pantomime, and its melding of the Harlequinade of the classic commedia dell’arte with the robust, rude and knockabout humour of the Clown and the Dame.
Kate Newey is Professor of Theatre History at the University of Exeter. Her work focuses on women’s writing and nineteenth century British popular theatre. She has published academic books and essays on John Ruskin, Victorian women playwrights, and the politics of the pantomime. She has held research Fellowships at Harvard University, the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre, University of Texas (Austin). She is currently leading a large-scale project funded by the European Research Council, ‘Women’s Transnational Theatre Networks, 1789-1914.’
Similar Current Events
Doing Science in the Age of Photography
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Tomorrow
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Tomorrow
The making of Plant Atlas 2020, from field to folio
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Monday 10 March
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Monday 10 March
Conserving Canterbury Cathedral
University of Leicester- precise venue to be confirmed Monday 17 March
University of Leicester- precise venue to be confirmed Monday 17 March
Recent discoveries from the Kimmeridge Clay
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Monday 24 March
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Monday 24 March
Rewilding – how we can heal our land
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Monday 7 April
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Monday 7 April
Writing the Roman Empire: from Leicester to the Sahara and back again
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Monday 28 April
Hansom Hall, Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester Monday 28 April