In Jane Austen’s day, theaters prepared Christmas pantomimes (pantos) that would begin on Boxing Day and run as long as the audiences demanded them. Although pantomimes had begun as a crowd-pleasing mix of humor, mime, special effects spectacles, song and dance, based on the Italian commedia dell’arte, by the late Georgian era, the panto had become a well-established part of Christmas tradition.

Each year, Regency era British theaters prepared Christmas pantomimes (pantos) that would begin on Boxing Day and run as long as the audiences demanded them. These were not silent productions, but rather very verbal performances that included the audience as an extra character in plays bearing many similarities to modern burlesque. The Pantomime Tradition The tradition of pantomimes and the pantomime characters in England traces back to medieval theater. Broadbent (1901) notes: A sketch of … Continue reading →