Time for Women with Talent to Take Back Older Female Roles in Pantos

I totally agree with you.

My issue is how few female roles there are compared to men in most shows.

I’m coming at this from a feminist persepctive.

This year in my son's panto there was

Benevolent Fairy - star billing
Panto Dame - local actor
Comedy Sidekick - always plays that role at the theatre
Hero - Musical theatre actor/been on a TV show
Female baddie - fabulous musical theatre actor
Heroine - MT actor

IN the next city the panto he did last year there was

Male baddy - star billing
Benelvolent fairy - 2nd billing TV presenter
Hero - Theatre actor been on TV
Panto Dame
Sidekick
Heroine

AT the exact same panto last year the fairy was the star billing and the Hero 2nd billing

The whole point is that it is topsy turvey.

I'd like to see the principal male actor go back to being a young woman which supports that element of the panto.

The script of the pantos generally stays the same regardless of who is cast, (with some added local bits) they just move around the different theatres. So the benevolent fairy role is the same size role regardless. And I have never seen it played by a member of the chorus.

The pride and prejudice panto was the best I’ve seen. It had lots of women and a male dame. You can do both

Calling them highly visible roles is a stretch.

@Comefromaway

"unless they have cast a famous female as the star the fairy godmother"

I've never known the Fairy Godmother/Spirit of the Ring/Fairy Moonbeam character played by a member of the chorus. It has always been an older minor celebrity woman. The ones in my son's panto both this year and last year had fabulous voices as they had also done musical theatre as well as being a Cbeebies personality. Years ago when my daughter was in panto it was someone from Phoenix Nights.

I did say this in one of my earlier posts that it’s often a minor role unless it’s played by the top billing female or such like. It’s exactly what i wrote in fact.

You have totally dismissed my comments as wrong.
But you have been wrong so...

Even if the male character was supposed to be a man (although another poster has just said the opposite a few posts back) I can still believe that women should be given the opportunity to play the Dame. Especially as their principle boy role is often now played by a man.

The dame has always been a male character - that is a fact. Given your extensive expertise why don't you know that?

If a company wants to write a dame character for a women there is nothing stopping them. But it shouldn't be forced upon anyone.

They would need to accept that it would change the dynamic of the performance as much of the humour derives from the fact the character is male. But there is nothing stopping them.

The panto my son was in last year the Fairy Godmother role was the main star billing.

That’s great! I am delighted that some productions are doing this.

As I said before

I didn't say every single panto I said ‘general trend’.

A general trend still affects women

I could say the same to you.

You have totally dismissed my comments as wrong.

Even if the male character was supposed to be a man (although another poster has just said the opposite a few posts back) I can still believe that women should be given the opportunity to play the Dame. Especially as their principle boy role is often now played by a man.

The company that perform the panto at my local theatre are a professional theatre company. They have a main characters which are written for women and performed by women.
They have different performances and cast performing in a number of theatres across the UK.

the character of the Dame was never a female role to begin with. It is a male character written for a male actor

I was just about to say that, but you beat me to it

You've been incredibly dismissive. That one comment doesn't cancel all of the others. You're also missing a rather important point - the character of the Dame was never a female role to begin with. It is a male character written for a male actor.
For someone who is supposedly an 'expert' it's rather odd that you ignore that fact.

Amateur productions can include many more characters because the actors are unpaid. It is the fact that older women’s livelihoods can be affected, not just panto but, as I pasted earlier, women getting ousted from all sorts of jobs in the industry when they reach a certain age.

I am aware there are lots of scripts but in professional shows the trend towards both the Dame role and the principle boy both being played by men it leaves less opportunity for women. This is just factual really.

I actually said, "that’s great" in reply to your post about your experience of seeing woman in the main roles in your local theatre. What’s dismissive about that?

However, this is not the norm.

Generally women have less roles and minor parts. Generally. Which is a problem. Dandini used to be played by a woman and the dames (ugly sisters) by men. Both parts gender reversed.

Here’s the first few pantos of Cinderella from 2025 that I found on google from 2024/2025. Main parts by sex.

*Edited to say waiting for the data to upload by ultimately it is very skewed towards male actors.

This is just not true. The Commedia del' Arte, on which panto is based, often had a comedic older woman role but this developed into "fairy godmother" type roles, which are usually played by women. The panto dame, which does not have a Commedia del' Arte parallel, originated in 1806 as a male role. It is not supposed to represent a woman, but be very clearly a man in women's clothing.

Bloody hell, Tankflop. It's almost as if you think there is just one script for every well known panto story and they all have just those handful of characters.

Certainly in regard to amateur pantos there are absolutely dozens of scripts, many with a much larger numbers of roles and many more female ones (as most amateur groups always have more female members than men) or roles that can be either sex. Many of course write their own to suit who they have.

They just did Beauty and the Beast at our pro theatre. In addition to Belle, there was Agatha the Evil Sorcereress and Fairy Rose Red, neither bring minor parts, and the actress playing Agatha was the only 'name' in the cast and is 55.

Then why are you so dismissive of others experiences of local theatre?

yes recently and for decades.

It has got worse for female actors not better because the young male roles are often (not always but increasingly) played by men now and they used to always be played by women. Like Dandini etc.

In recent years?

Haven't clicked on the link to read the article yet, but I think I recognise that Dame - is it Berwick Kaler?!
Love him if so - I never manage to catch a Wagon Wheel though 😂