Funded in part by generous grants from Subud International Cultural Association, USA and Ronnie Lacroute: Promoting the value of the Arts in our Community

British Panto is slapstick comedy that arose in the 1500's as England’s answer to Commedia dell'arte, performed at Christmastime with a madcap assortment of stock characters. The Panto Dame is a comic-camp, female character always played by a man in drag. In Cinderella the Ugly Sisters are panto dames. The sidekick is a secondary character who encourages the audience to shout and clap while comically commenting on the action. In Cinderella that character is Buttons, her father's (Baron Von Hangover) servant and her friend. Rather than killing off Cinder's father, (as in the Disney version) he survives as a hen-pecked lush, who rises up to save the day