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Partridge in a Pear Tree parody. Row of comics and others behind washing machines. The first day of Christmas my true love sent to me etc. The first day of Christmas I saw on TV . . . so many washing machines, so many drip drip shirts (Dame washing them) two rubber gloves, and a clock that makes the tea. Include one packet of Daz. Each are produced as mentioned. Eventually porter comes on with trolley of packets. (Get actual number to write parody from)
(Marshall 1950s routine in Abbott, Panto 306)
Sevenoaks's version of the '12 Days of Christmas' which used Chinese takeaway menu items instead of the now usual 'bra that was made to hold three' and 'five toilet rolls', was also a welcome deviation...
(Sladen)
The first extract above is from a gag book started in the early 1940s by prolific pantomime author Henry Marshall and now to be found in the Bristol theatre collection. the second extract is from an online pantomime review in 2013 by Simon Sladen, British Theatre Guide pantomime critic. this paper will seek to examine Marshall's gag book in order to examine some of the persisting tropes of pantomime performance, as well as considering some of the more specific features of mid-twentieth century repertory theatre pantomime as written by Marshall for Salisbury playhouse for thirty-one years from 1955 to 1985. the distinctive feature of this book of gags and routines is that it was written for inexperienced performers at the beginning of their careers, and therefore contains a level of detail not often found in similar collections.
The persistence of the twelve days of christmas routine over more than fifty years is an indication not only of the force of tradition within pantomime dramaturgy but also of the important role of learned and passed-on routines within the genre. when Sladen remarks on the ubiquity of the routine in the 2012 season he identifies it as one of the many longlasting set-pieces still to be seen in pantomime. Marshall's version of the routine requires a prominent role for daz soap powder rather than items from a chinese restaurant, perhaps in return for supplies for the wardrobe, but in all essentials the routine is unchanged. He also includes a...