We celebrated Christmas last year with a Zoom lunch so it was good to be able to sit around a table once more and enjoy a Christmas meal with our ladies. Sixty four eventually sat down to traditional roast turkey and trimmings followed by Christmas pudding and mince pies, a good attendance considering the concerns of several members about the new Covid variant.
Our after lunch speaker Pete Allen gave an excellent talk on the history of Pantomime with lots of fascinating information and plenty of laughs.
Pete explained that one of the toughest roles in Panto is the rear end of the horse. You are uncomfortably bent over, your head in close proximity to the posterior of the front man, you are in the dark and you are expected to keep time with the front feet without seeing them! He has performed the role once but never again!
The word pantomime is derived from ancient Greek where a pantomimus, 'the imitator of all' played may roles and the plays themselves have roots in the Italian street plays Commedia dell'arte. The first Pantomime was performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the early eighteenth century and they still continue to host Christmas Panto's today.
The 'slapstick' comedy of the pantomime is apparently derived from an actual slap stick used by the harlequins in the early versions of the plays.
Bill Scott thanked Pete for his most entertaining talk and hoped that he had some other topics so we could invite him back soon.
The final part of the lunchtime was the formal handover of the Chairman's Insignia to the incoming Chairman. John Gilbert handed over to David Griffiths who thanked John for his excellent hard work in keeping the Club together over the last two extraordinary years. David thanked the members for entrusting him with guiding the Club through 2022, a very special year, when we celebrate our Golden Jubilee.
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