The Best Guide for the South Sunderland Area

The Panto Sleeping Beauty

Author: Roger Heywood

Published: 29th November 2009 17:39

The pantomime version of Sleeping Beauty generally follows the Brothers Grimm or Disney story, but with some alterations to pad out the plot and make fuller use of all the characters.

It usually starts with the scene at the christening of the baby princess at which the Wicked Witch ( or Fairy ) curses the child to die on her 16th ( or 18th ) birthday after pricking her finger ( either on the spindle of a spinning wheel, or possibly on a rose bush ). Fortunately the White Witch, or Good Fairy, is able to transmute this curse into the lesser one of her falling asleep for a 100 years !

Alternatively, it may begin at her coming of age, with the christening scene told in a flashback. Either way, the story then moves on to the birthday party. In order to give the Prince - the hero of the panto - a better role, the traditional fairy tale plot is changed and he attends this party. This device enables him to meet the Princess, sing a song or two - normally including a love duet with the leading lady - and allow them to fall in love. However, they are not allowed to kiss ! This has to be reserved for the awakening scene.

The comic male character is usually a young servant at the palace, who has become friendly with the Princess ( and secretly loves her, probably ). The Dame was traditonally the Queen, but is now more commonly the Nursemaid of the princess, perhaps as a nod to the Blackadder character in the Elizabethan series.

Towards the end of the party, the Princess will be tricked by the Bad Fairy in disguise into pricking her finger. The evil witch leaves the stage gloating that she has gained her revenge. Luckily for the Prince, the Good Fairy takes pity on the romantic couple - she sends him away from the palace on some pretext, then casts another spell trapping the palace and all those within it to a 100 year sleep, protected by an impenetrable barrier of thorns. Act 1 often ends with a tableaux of the birthday guests, other than the Prince, falling asleep on stage as the curtain falls.

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Act 2 then has to start with the Good Fairy catching up with the Prince, enabling her to give him a magic sword to cut through the thorn bushes, before using her magic to transport him forward into the future, just before the palace awakes. He is able to reach the Princess in time to awaken her with " True Love's First Kiss ", ensuring that they will live happily ever after.

However, the panto cannot end here - it is far too early yet ! So there will have to another plot change to extend the story. Generally the Bad Fairy will return to the palace and kidnap someone, possibly the childhood friend of the Princess, perhaps in the mistaken belief that he is the Prince. This allows all the good characters to go on a witch-hunt of some sort, until they rescue the kidnap victim and the Prince has a final battle with the Bad Fairy.

Once the Prince has overcome the Bad Fairy, evil has been defeated, true love has triumphed, good has prevailed, the panto can stage its grand finale ( perhaps a wedding scene ? ) and all can live happily ever after !!

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Character Names

Sleeping Beauty is unusual in not having a fixed character list - there are several variations for most of the participants:

• The Princess

often now called Princess Beauty, but more traditionally known as Aurora ( as beautiful as the dawn, as in the Disney film  ) or Briar Rose ( as in the Grimm version )

• The Prince

there seems to be no modern consensus - might equally well be Prince Harry as " the artist formerly known as Prince "

• The Young Comic

most commonly " Muddles", but could also be something topical - Jedward perhaps ?

• The Bad Fairy

generally described as a witch - Disney used 'Maleficent' ,which is a copyrighted name, Tchaikovsky's ballet uses Carabosse, which is not and is therefore quite popular. Sometimes the Wicked Fairy or Maligna or Furiosa.

• The Good Fairy

again no set name - historically was often Fairy Rose Dawn, but in modern times more likely to be Fairy Stardust, or Fairy Clarabelle, or Fairy Godmother ( or perhaps Fairy Nuff ).

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You can see the Customs House version of Sleeping Beauty this year - read our preview by clicking here.

If you enjoyed this feature, you might like to read about the traditional fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.

 

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