The problem with panto – a

The Problem with Panto

“Putting Black and brown bodies on display onstage does not an anti-racist production make” – Theatre editor Rho Chung does a deep dive on pantomime's racism problem

As an American transplant to Scotland, I already felt out of my depth when I was first exposed to the art of British pantomime. Having been raised Korean and Jewish, my exposure to Christmas traditions in my own home country is limited as it is – forget about Christmastime institutions abroad. So imagine my surprise when the image below appeared in my inbox. This year, Beacon Arts Centre offers a new adaptation of Aladdin. On the far right of the promo image, Mark Cox (Abanazer) sports a glittery, green analogue of Jafar’s famous getup. And in the centre, Jimmy Chisholm sports an inexplicable Ancient Egyptian costume as Widow Twankey. The rest of the costumes include imagery from all over the Asian continent, from the religious art of the South-East to the exa erated sleeves of China’s Qing Dynasty.

“Why is pantomime seemingly exempt from the bare minimum of anti-racist consciousness?”

I’ll start by pointing out that this image – which features only white actors – is Orientalism, and it is, wholly and unequivocally, harmful and inappropriate. In 2020, Lucy Lillistone covered backlash against Forum Theatre’s Christmas production of Aladdin. At the time, the production company doubled down on their decision to include the archetype of ‘The Chinese Policemen’, citing only tradition. This apathy among white theatre-makers lays bare what artists and audiences of colour have known for years. They highlight the attitude that, if it’s harmful to you, that’s your own problem. While I don’t think this issue can be reduced to something as simple as representation or ‘diverse casting’, the question bears repeating: why is pantomime seemingly exempt from the bare minimum of anti-racist consciousness? Would Aladdin pantos be OK if the titular character were played by an Asian actor? I think not. In a theatrical tradition that so unabashedly melds every Asian culture into a single, comedic Franken-culture, the issue is hardly limited to the cast. While casting is a large part of the equation, our commentary on it must go deeper. To get something like a frame of reference, I turned to Ayanna Thompson’s recent book, Blackface (yes, we should all read it). Looking at the above photo, Thompson’s definition of blackface should sound familiar: “On the most basic level, blackface is the application of any prosthetic – makeup, soot, burnt cork, minerals, masks, etc. – to imitate the complexion of another race.” By this definition, one could argue that Cox’s heavy makeup in the Aladdin promo image is, in fact, blackface. If we agree that Cox’s cartoonish visage is blackface of some kind, it should seem all the more sinister that, as the villain Abanazer, Cox is the only actor in the lineup to receive that treatment. What does it say about Asian-ness that only the villain is in blackface? The logic of white people who have done blackface, Thompson writes, stems from the “belief that ignorance is a type of innocence.” To me, this is the actual crux of the problem with Aladdin pantos: the pantomime stage is implicitly considered a white, therefore ‘innocent’, space. If pantos choose to employ ‘diverse casting’, they are nevertheless inviting marginalised performers into their space, rather than giving them any ownership over it. Putting Black and brown bodies on display onstage does not an anti-racist production make. Blackface performance, Thompson says, reveals implicit biases – this includes the belief that racist tropes are funny, and therefore OK to play on stage. As Bo Burnham says in What’s Funny (2010), “Everybody laughs at the Chinese accent, because they privately thought that your people were laughable, and now you’ve given them the chance to express that in public.” The continued success of racist pantomimes speaks to a broader culture that has always thought that a little racist joke is OK, as a treat. None of this is to say that pantomime should be done away with entirely. Pantomime is a vital and supremely creative art form – it is many children’s first exposure to theatre. And, with reliable sources of income all but evaporating for theatre artists, pantomime remains an indispensable feature of the theatrical ecosystem. As a famously adaptable art form, pantomime is uniquely positioned to comment directly on our day-to-day environment; it already does in so many ways. Actor Michelle Kelly says, “Creating theatre that welcomes children and first-time theatre-goers is a noble aim; it is made all the less noble when only white children and first-time theatre-goers are truly welcome.” When we think of pantomime as “for children”, it often feels like the unspoken meaning is “for white children” – after all, as Kelly points out, are Asian children not also children? Don’t they deserve to feel safe and respected? Representation is instructive – it teaches children how their community feels about what they see. And if pantomime is to truly welcome all audiences, it has some growing of its own to do.

To read the more in-depth version of this article, visit theskinny.co.uk/theatre

Image: courtesy of Beacon Arts Centre